A Progressive Takeover
by Caisius
Summary: It's six months after the events of the movie. WALL-E and EVE's adventure is finally over. Though that doesn't mean that life is simple now. Humanity and robots alike must clean the world up. All is peaceful... until a scientist decides to make a move.
1. Chapter One: A Humanlike Ability

Okay, quick history lesson, then you'll never see a long A/N like this again!

Three years ago I wrote the original of this story. I wrote four chapters and then stopped. I had to deal with a number of real-life events. I didn't know if I'd ever come back to this.. But three years later I did come back to it. I read the original again and realized I didn't like it. It was plagued with problems. There were spelling errors and grammar errors. All of the dialogue was in _italics. _And I was unhappy with the way I portrayed some of the characters.

I decided to fix all of this by re-writing the story. I was going to have the plot be the same with minor changes here and there.. but I realized that there were some things that needed to be changed for the story to be more powerful, more enjoyable.. So I decided to do a total restart of the story. I hope it'll be enjoyable for old and new readers alike!

I won't make a habit of asking this, but if you could please review and leave me feedback, I'll be grateful! This will only help me craft a better story! Enjoy!

**Chapter One: A Human-Like Ability**

The sudden jolt of the Axiom caused many among the massive crowd on the Lido deck to fall over one another. Those who were able to somehow keep their balance were toppled over by the others like dominoes. None of this caught the attention of EVE, however, as she stayed beside a battered and broken WALL-E, who had given his all to allow the plant to be placed in the holo-detector.

They were now on their way home, to Earth.

"WALL-E!" EVE cried out, hoping to get some sort of response from the now defunct robot in front of her.

Finding plant life on Earth had always been the directive of the Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator Probes... A directive that, only a short time ago, EVE had believed would never be fulfilled. Now here they were, heading back to Earth, her directive finally completed.. But at what cost?

EVE stayed by WALL-E's side through the whole trip back to Earth. He had never willingly left her side, EVE realized, looking back at the security footage taken after she had taken possession of the plant. WALL-E was there the whole time, doing everything he could to bring her back online. And when that failed, he tried to keep her safe. He had just met her, yet he was taking care of her like a dearest friend.

EVE's eye forms narrowed into a sad expression as she realized through the majority of their early time together, she had been rude to WALL-E. She had also scolded him after she was brought back online. She had thought he had taken the plant while she was offline, which was later proven to be false.

WALL-E had nearly given his life to get that cursed plant back to EVE. _Twice_, she corrected herself. Yes, twice he had nearly given his life for her and everyone elses benefit. But as EVE looked at the lifeless body in front of her, she knew that the third time struck him out. He was gone.

_No, this isn't the end.. it can't be.. No.._ EVE wouldn't give up hope, she couldn't.

As the Axiom came to a stop, EVE realized they had landed. _Earth... Wait, it can't be the end, there IS something I can do!_

EVE picked WALL-E up and flew past the now-moving crowd of people heading to one of the many exits off the ship, knocking a few over in her determined rush to the one place she knew could help WALL-E... his home.

EVE felt many different emotions as she flew through the halls of the Axiom. Fright, sadness, but there was one more feeling, a feeling that she couldn't didn't have the time to worry about emotions right now, though, only determination. She was determined to help WALL-E before it was too late... If it wasn't already. _No.. It's not too late! He can be repaired, made good as new! _EVE thought encouragingly to herself as she took a left at an intersection.

She spotted a door at the far end of the long hall as it opened up, revealing a bright-lit landscape of every shade of brown imaginable. "WALL-E.." Eve looked down at her still friend in her arms. She looked back up toward the door. Her eyes narrowed in a determined resolve as she reached the light of the open door.

EVE reached the top of the ramp down to the ground and set WALL-E down for a moment as she eyed out WALL-E's truck. Hal, WALL-E's cockroach friend, crawled swiftly up the ramp to their location and climbed on top of WALL-E, chirping worriedly at EVE. She looked down and noticed him as the source of the noise. She nodded slightly as she picked up WALL-E and flew as fast as she could manage to WALL-E's truck.

She flew through the open door of his truck and set down the shattered bot as she began to look for all the necessary parts that were needed to fix her friend. She searched frantically through the shelves, finding all that she thought would be needed to repair WALL-E.

EVE's mind raced with all of her memories of him as she continued her work. As she grabbed a new pair of optics from the shelf, she remembered the time WALL-E tried to teach her to dance. She silently sighed to herself as she swiftly continued her work.

The procedure finished almost as quickly as it had begun, with EVE opening up WALL-E's solar panels and blasting a hole in the ceiling of the truck with her Ion Cannon. The procedure took a total time of only thirty-two seconds. _Too slow.. _EVE scolded herself.

EVE patiently, yet nervously, waited as the sunlight poured through the hole onto WALL-E, hoping that he would recharge.

At first, it seemed like it wouldn't work, that her WALL-E would never speak her name again. But within moments, which seemed like an eternity, a familiar beep sounded, followed by another, and then another, with the sounds coming with less time in between each. Finally, the "Fully Charged" sound echoed from his body as he slowly lifted his head, showing that he was alive.

That sound was the best thing that EVE had heard in her entire existence.

With a relieved look, her eyes formed upward crescents as she raised her hand to allow her new, self-made "directive" to begin. WALL-E did not take her hand, however. He stared at her with blank, soul-less eyes, piercing through her being. She had the feeling he didn't even acknowledge her company.

EVE caught WALL-E as he tried to turn around to track away and turned him around to face her. _Does he not recognize me..?_ "Eeee-vah," she said pointing to herself, hoping he would remember her. She saw no acknowledgement in his eyes. _Nothing..._

She looked over on the shelf and an idea hit her. She hovered over and grabbed two objects that may help. She repositioned herself in front of WALL-E with the rubix cube in one hand and the light bulb in the other, which she lit, hoping to spark some form of memory within WALL-E of the first time she was in his home.

EVE looked at WALL-E with hopeful eyes as he looked at the treasures she had just given to him. "WALL-E?"

WALL-E glanced up at the shelves full of his treasures, his face still blank of expression.

"Ooh!" EVE said as she turned around to the tape player that held his most prized treasure. She pushed the tape in and pressed the play button. _"Hello, Dolly!"_ appeared on the screen. She turned around with hopeful crescents in her eyes, hoping to see WALL-E returning to normal. Her eyes went wide in shock as she witnessed him compacting his treasures into cubes of trash. Once he had finished, he turned and began moving outside.

"WALL-E..?" was all that EVE could manage to say as her eyes locked onto the cube of broken treasures lying on the ground. She hovered over to the opened entrance and looked on in disbelief as WALL-E tracked away. She felt something that she had only experienced three times before. Sadness, something so foreign, yet so much a part of her now.. Something she did not like the feel of.

She looked on as WALL-E began to blur, and then fade away, leaving her helpless, and forever alone.

* * *

EVE awoke from her dormant state with a jump, realizing that it was a dream. Given the way she was feeling, if she were human, tears would escape her eyes.

She sighed in relief as she looked around the room. Everything was normal, WALL-E's treasures were safely tucked away on the shelves and there was no trash cube on the floor where she had remembered it. She glanced over toward the shelves full of the many treasures WALL-E had discovered over the 700 years of him fulfilling his directive. She saw WALL-E still in his boxed form on the bottom shelf, sleeping.

She had been sleeping near the entrance to the truck, where there was plenty of room for her to not be in the way in case WALL-E woke up and needed to move around, though that rarely, if ever, happened.

"WALL-E..." she whispered to herself as she slowly, and quietly, hovered over to the shelf where he was sleeping. She looked down at him with sad eyes as she recalled the dream she had just experienced. Everything could've turned out much differently than it did. He could still be out there, a mindless vessel fulfilling the one thing he was programmed to do. And she... she would be alone.

_Alone.._ EVE's eyes closed together and she shook her head. "Never!" she yelled out, quickly putting her hands up to her face as if to cover her "mouth." She looked down to see that WALL-E was still sleeping and sighed in relief that she hadn't woken him up.

She looked up at the hole she had shot out of the ceiling of the truck six months ago, and lifted herself up and out of the truck.

She looked around at the slowly-growing culture around her. There was a blend of skyscrapers built of trash cubes surrounding them in every direction. She had once heard a human refer to the collective of trash piles as "Trashopolis." Many of the skyscrapers had been taken down, either by workers or by natural happenings. There had been many casualties when one of the giant trash stacks collapsed, all of them had been bots.

She continued to scan the surrounding area, noticing that everywhere she looked, there were still BnL logos. The sight of them was getting repetitive. BnL was the whole reason why the humans had to leave Earth in the first place. Their irresponsibility led to the decline of earth's population as more and more star cruisers left, filled with passengers, for their infamous "Five-Year Cruise." But she wasn't angry, though. If it wasn't for that, she wouldn't be alive today.. and she wouldn't have WALL-E, either. To that, she thanked them.

It was still night outside, the landscape was lit by only the light of the full moon. EVE looked up and saw many specks of black, different shapes and sizes, scattered across the surface of the moon, slowly moving about it like a bunch of deformed ants. There was still so much cleaning that needed to be done. Not only was the land on the earth still covered in trash, but the atmosphere was as well. Many derelict space stations and other crafts littered the atmosphere with junk. But also items found on the surface were present here as well as BnL tried to eject much of the trash early on into space. Much of that trash, however, had found its way back into orbit, only increasing the problems.

EVE sighed as she looked at the tiny sleeping town near the Axiom. "Dream..." she muttered to herself, replaying this new phenomenon in her head several times. She had dreamed before, but only a few times. She had never felt such emotion within the previous dreams. Then again, those dreams were not of the event that nearly took her WALL-E away.

She looked down at the roof of the truck and closed her eyes. She sobbed quietly to herself, giving in to the unpleasent thoughts. She had fixed WALL-E.. but his memory wasn't there, his very soul was gone. She saved his physical form, but she seemed to have failed in saving _her_ WALL-E.. She had nearly lost him for who he was and she wasn't about to forget it.

EVE sighed heavily, trying to rid of her sobs. "WALL-E..." she whispered to herself, "Never...go.." She sobbed again as she looked up toward the moon, a fitting spotlight for her thriving emotions.

The sound from beneath caught EVE's attention as she looked down toward the source. She saw that the door was opening up, signifying that WALL-E was awake. "Ee-vah..?" the familiar bot said as he rolled down the ramp of the truck, looking around to find her.

EVE tried to put on a straight face to hide her sadness as she hovered to the edge of the truck's roof. "WALL-E!" she said as happily as she could manage as she hovered off the top of the truck, down to where WALL-E was stationed.

"Ee-vah... okay?" WALL-E asked worriedly, looking into EVE's eyes.

EVE wondered if her eyes had betrayed her forced act. She nodded to WALL-E with her eyes formed in fake upward crescents.

WALL-E wasn't fully convinced, but decided not to force the subject. There had to be a reason why she was out here and not inside sleeping. "Sle...eeep?" he asked her, hoping to get her to come back inside.

EVE turned around slightly, looking back up at the moon. Her eyes formed downward crescents as she thought about the dream again. She didn't want to rest, she didn't want to be haunted by that dream once again.

WALL-E moved beside her, looking up at the moon as well. "Whoa!" He said, noticing details he had never taken the time to notice before. His optics re-adjusted to concentrate on all of the little black bits moving around on the shining silver surface of the moon. He looked back at EVE as she continued to stare toward the sky. He slowly reached for her hand, grabbing it gently, causing EVE to look back down at him. Their eyes met and EVE sighed.

"Go.. sleep," EVE said, pointing to him, "..Think," she then pointed to herself.

WALL-E looked at the ground for a moment then back up at EVE and nodded. "Sleeeep too... soon?"

EVE nodded with the upward crescents forming in her eyes again, showing her false happiness.

WALL-E nodded again and let go of EVE's hand as he turned around to head inside. He stopped at the top of the ramp and looked back down at EVE, almost expecting something more. After a moment, he just nodded again and pulled the lever, closing the door behind him.

EVE sighed as she watched him go inside. She had successfully hidden her sadness. She smiled to herself. _No need in having him worry about me.. I want him to be happy, not share my sadness.. _She thought as she looked toward the Axiom. She eyed the ramp that had once been the exit she took with the then-lifeless WALL-E in her arms. She looked away toward the truck. _It's not going to help thinking about it. It's over, he's okay.. We'll be happy!_ She nodded to herself, satisfied, as she flew back up to the roof of the truck and into the hole. She would need the energy to help with tomorrow's continued clean-up.

* * *

The day before had been a very busy one. Another one of BnL's Star Cruisers had finally returned from their 700 year "Five-Year Cruise." The bots had been kept busy with unpacking the ship and finishing preperations for temporary living spaces for the newly-arriving humans.

The human population on Earth had sky-rocketed since the Axiom first landed six months before. Only days after the Axiom had landed, bots on-board had determined that the world was, indeed, capable of sustaining life again. Once confirmed, the Axiom had sent out signals to all other BnL Star Cruisers, declaring Earth safe to return to.

The other ships did have slight struggles. The Auto-pilots, attempting to accomplish the directives the BnL president had given them nearly 700 years before, put up a fight. They had, however, ultimately failed.

Human life was returning to its former glory, and the bots knew this. But they were only too happy to help, as the humans had treated them very well since they became aware of their surroundings.

There were some humans that disliked, or even hated, robots however. After the Axiom sent out the "okay" for all ships to return to Earth, most ships ran into little trouble shutting off their Auto-pilots, but there were a couple that ran into massive problems. The "Rivalry," a Star Cruiser whose name was meant to rival the unpleasentness of the trash-crisis on Earth by providing a clean and safe environment on board for its passengers, was the worst off. The Auto-pilot on-board took a new meaning from that name. When the captain tried to shut him off, he went rogue and turned the Steward-bots loose on anyone resisting his directive to keep them in space and not return to Earth.

Many people on-board were injured in the fighting, and there were several deaths. For a time after the fighting started, many passengers had kept to their quarters to keep safe, but there were a few who risked everything they knew by forming a resistence and eventually began fighting back harder than before. Eventually the passengers won their right to go back home and arrived back on Earth four months after the Axiom's message had been sent. They were finally home, but their experiences left them with a hatred that would likely never go away.

* * *

The following morning, EVE decided it was time to see somebody about the human-like ability she had been experiencing for weeks now. Dreams. There was only one person that she knew, and trusted, that may be able to help her, although she would not have expected that _he_ would have become interested in science and engineering six months ago.

She had told WALL-E that she was going to help out with a clean-up operation on the far-side of the Axiom. WALL-E hadn't thought anything about it and just waved good-bye to her. Now she was on the ground, slowly hovering through the dusty brown streets of the town around her. Most of the area still possessed abandoned buildings or trash piles, though there were a few areas that had been cleaned up to allow for living space for the worker-bots. It had been a massive task to take down the giant tower of trash that had once stood in this area, but eventually it came down, as cleanly as a trash tower can be taken down, at least. There was still so much more work to do, though.

EVE took a left past another make-shift shelter that had been erected for the worker-bots from whatever materials could be found and used. _I hope that he can help me with my problem.._ EVE thought as she continued down another road. She looked up to her left and noticed the Axiom towering high above her. She had been taking different roads and make-shift paths around the Axiom to the other side where more exit ramps were.

She climbed up the third ramp away from her and entered the Axiom. She hovered down the hall a little ways and took a right, following it for a little ways before taking a left into a smaller hall with a few doors on either side. She looked at a sign that read, "Engineering Hall 3," hanging above her as she entered the hall. _Here we are.. Which door was it?_

EVE moved down the hall eyeing each of the doors as she passed by them. Most of them were empty, but a couple had been occupied by humans trying to get into the field of engineering. EVE continued down the hall a little further until she spotted a door on the right that had a crooked sign hanging on the wall to the right of it. It simply read, "John's Office."

"Simple," EVE giggled to herself lightly at the informal sign hanging out of place on the wall. She pressed a button on the right side of the door causing a beep to sound.

"Huh, wha-? Who's there?" a voice yelled through the door.

"EVE," EVE simply stated.

"EVE? Well, why didn't you say so? Come on in!" EVE entered the room and noticed John sitting on the far end of the room at a workbench, which had many different parts of old robots sitting on top of the counter.

EVE hovered over to the workbench and looked down at what John was messing with.

"Bah! Blasted thing!" John shouted as he slammed the arm of a WALL-E unit down on the table, causing a few other pieces to jump off and land on the floor. John sighed and looked over at the door, noticing EVE coming toward him. "EVE! It's good to see you again! How've you been?" John smiled.

John had lost a considerable amount of weight over the past six months, though he still had a long way to go. He still got around far distances in a hover-chair, though he did do a lot more walking than he used to. He still wore the same red suit that many people still wore today. Primarily because other clothes still had to be made and whatever clothes that were found in the rubble and trash were way to far destroyed to be useable, or not the right size. He had also allowed his hair to grow out a bit, allowing it to hang down to his shoulders.

EVE's eyes formed downward crescents, informing John that she was there for more than just a friendly chat. "What's wrong there, EVE?"

"Dream..." she stated almost silently.

John looked at her for a moment. "Dream? I don't understand... What about a dream?

EVE sighed, "I... dream."

John turned his head up, looking at the ceiling for a moment. He shook his head, "I still don't get it... You act like it's a bad thing to have a dream."

EVE looked at John, frustrated. "Bots... don't dream.."

John may have been practicing engineering, but he clearly had a long way to go.

John pondered what he was just told for a moment before looking back at EVE, "Well, if that's the case.. Then perhaps there may be a problem.. Though I don't really see it," John rubbed his chin for a moment in thought, "I mean, I think dreams would be a good thing.."

EVE shook her head and looked sadly toward John "Bad.. dream.."

"Hmm.. Well, bad dreams certainly aren't good..." He said as he pressed a button on the right arm-rest of his chair, moving him slightly closer to EVE. "Can you tell me what was in this dream of yours?"

EVE looked down with downward crescents forming in her eyes. "WALL-E.."

John rubbed his chin as he looked at the troubled bot, "WALL-E you say? What about him?"

EVE quickly turned around to face away from John, attempting to hide her sobs as she thought back again to the dream. "WALL-E.. gone.."

John had never seen EVE so sad before. She normally was a happy, care-free being. What would cause her such emotional distress? "Gone..? You're talking about from six months ago..." John realized. He sighed, "EVE, listen to me. WALL-E is alright now. What happened six months ago has nothing to do with what happens today." John gently reached for EVE and turned her around to face him and placed a hand on her arm. "Remember that.. WALL-E is there for you. Now and always."

John released his grip and turned around, staring at the collection of robotic parts on the counter in front of him. "Dream... Dilarious.. That's it!" John exclaimed as he turned around to face EVE once again. "Dr. Dilarious would know about this. He has spent his entire life in the fields of Science and Engineering.. That man is truly brilliant!" John smiled, "He'll know more on this situation, I'm sure!"

EVE's eyes widened in response and nodded. "Thank you," she said as she turned to leave, happier than she had previously been. But before she started moving, she turned back around, looking at John once again. "No tell.. WALL-E.. okay?"

John smiled at EVE, "Of course not, your secret is safe with me, EVE."

EVE nodded happily and turned toward the door. She hovered over and opened the door to leave, bumping into WALL-E in the process.

"E-vah!" he yelled happily to EVE as he reached to hug her. "E-vah...okay?" he then asked.

"Oh yeah, she's fine, WALL-E!" John called out across the room. "She just stopped by for a friendly chat."

WALL-E looked at EVE, who nodded in confirmation of what John had just said.

EVE smiled with her eyes and reached for WALL-E's hand, "Come?" She asked.

WALL-E nodded happily, accepting her hand as they walked through the door.

John watched the door close behind them and chuckled. "EVE sure is good at hiding her sadness from WALL-E.. Really have to respect her for not wanting to worry him."

He turned around and positioned himself back at his workbench. He scanned the parts on the table for a moment. "Hmm.. I sure hope Dr. Dilarious doesn't mind helping EVE with her problem..." John said as he picked the WALL-E arm back up and started attempting to fit it onto a body that it was clearly not designed for.

John gave up after a moment and placed the arm down, more gently than he had previously done. "I hope he's willing to help them.. since I know he's not fond of sentient robots.."


	2. Chapter Two: Dr Dilarious

**A/N:** Thanks to all who reviewed! I appreciate it. :)

Anyway, this chapter didn't feel right when writing it, but it read a little better. I'm not 100% happy with it, but it'll have to do. Onward!

**Chapter Two: Dr. Dilarious**

EVE and WALL-E left the Axiom, hand-in-hand, as they began their walk to visit Dr. Dilarious. They walked down the ramp of one of the exits and took a left onto a narrow road.

_Access data-bank on-board the Axiom. _EVE ordered her internal systems. She didn't know the location of Dr. Dilarious's lab, so she would need directions. _Display layout of the land around the Axiom with a radius of three kilometers._ EVE again ordered her systems. A map displaying the surrounding area popped up into EVE's view. _Display location of Dr. Dilarious and provide best route for travel._ A red flashing dot appeared on the map followed by a thin red line that snaked through different roads from their current location to the red dot. EVE studied the map briefly and then nodded to herself slightly. _Save map for future reference._ She ordered, satisfied with what she was provided.

The sun shined brightly through the clouds and dust high in the middle of the sky, showing it was just after noon. The day had passed quickly since EVE had left the truck earlier that morning to visit John on-board the Axiom. It had been only seven in the morning when she had left. _There won't be much time to help with cleaning.._ She realized, looking at a pile of trash on the right side of the road.

The area around the Axiom had been cleaned up mostly, aside from the occasional trash pile. Grass grew in small patches in areas that were once covered in trash, providing some much needed color to the land. It wasn't much, however. More would have to be cleaned up to allow for such patches of grass to expand to the outskirts of the town.

EVE spotted a flower among one of the grass patches as they passed it. _One day this whole planet will look like this.. Green and beautiful._ EVE smiled to herself.

"Ee-vah?"

EVE blinked and looked to her right to see WALL-E staring at her with something in his right hand. EVE's eyes went wide. WALL-E must have let go of her hand without her knowing it. "Flower.."

WALL-E nodded, holding out a small yellow flower in his hand toward her.

"WALL-E!" EVE cried out happily, hugging him tightly.

"Whoa!"WALL-E said, gently breaking away from EVE. "Caareeful," he said, pointing at the flower.

EVE nodded and grabbed the flower and placed it in her Stasis chamber to keep it safe. She smiled with her eye forms. "Thank you."

WALL-E nodded happily, "Alll land.. coveered in flo..werrs.. soon," He said, struggling with the words.

EVE could picture it in her mind, a bright and beautiful land of green. Flowing rivers and waterfalls. No more trash, no more dust.. She sighed, "So far away..."

"It will.. coome!" WALL-E said enthusiastically.

EVE nodded in agreement. "Yes," _He's right. It'll be here! I can't wait to see it.._

EVE brought up the map again. _Almost there._

The narrow road leading from the Axiom opened up to a T-Intersection. They had walked a considerable distance away from the Axiom's clean surroundings. There was a line of abandoned buildings on the other side of the street, trash piles scattered around them in piles that reached almost as high as the second floor of some of the buildings. Behind the line of buildings, a few blocks away, stood a giant tower of trash.

EVE stopped for a moment at the intersection, looking down the left road.

WALL-E looked at her for a moment, wondering what she was looking at, "Ee-vah?"

EVE turned back to look at WALL-E, "Check map.." She informed him. "This way." She pointed down the left road. "Come." She said as she took his hand and led him down the road.

The two bots continued on, looking at the sights on the sides of the road. Many buildings were still covered in trash and unoccupied, but there were a few that had been repurposed into storage areas or even living spaces for humans. Why a human would want to live out in this, was anyone's guess.

On the opposite side of the road, a few worker-bots worked on removing trash from around a two-story building that may have once been a shop of some kind. There was a faded red and white awning hanging above most of the sidewalk in front of the building. A familiar bot was cleaning the sidewalk right in front of the door.

"M-O!" WALL-E called out across the street.

The cleaner-bot raised his head and looked across the street to see who had called for him. He happily danced about as he noticed who it was, "WALL-E! Ee-vah!"

WALL-E began to cross the street as EVE caught his arm to stop him. "Huh?"

"Help him," EVE pointed at M-O. "Need to.. see someone," she said pointing to herself. EVE brought up the map one more time into her vision. Dr. Dilarious's lab appeared to be only a block down the street. EVE looked over to where it was located, noticing a two-story building that had recently been painted a bright white. It stood out well against the browns and tans of the surrounding area. She removed the map from her display. "Over there," She then said to WALL-E, pointing toward the building.

WALL-E hesitated for a moment, but then nodded. "Okaayy.. I be theerre... soooon."

EVE nodded happily and hugged WALL-E, telling him good-bye, then turned around to hover away. _Now at least WALL-E won't have to know about my problem.. _She thought to herself. _Time to get some answers._

* * *

"No! Get away from those, they are quite fragile!" Yelled the old man of eighty-two. He was a thin man and at a height of six-feet and two-inches, was fairly tall as well. His skin was a pale white, and his hair as white as snow, hanging down past his shoulders in a mess of tangles. He wore beige pants, a faded blue shirt and a messy, untied tie, all of which had been found in the ruins of the past. His appearance was complete with an old stained lab coat.

"Aw, but Mister Dilarious! They are so neat!" Protested Amy, an eight year-old girl. She was fairly short, standing at about four-feet and three-inches. Her skin was a light tan in color. Her eyes were an emerald green, standing out like the green of plants in the brown wasteland. Her hair was like black silk, hanging halfway down her back. She wore a light-green T-shirt with a flower pattern running across its front, as well as a pair of oversized blue shorts, which hung down to her knees.

"For the last time, it's Dr. Dilarious! Mister does no justice to my brilliance!" Dr. Dilarious scowled in response.

Amy rolled her eyes and looked away from Dr. Dilarious so she could play with some of the 'neat' looking tools on the counter, "Whatever you say, Doctor Dilly!" She giggled.

"You're going to put an old man in his grave, child." sighed Dilarious as he began looking through a bookshelf stocked-full of books of all sizes. He ran his finger across the spines of each book, reading the faded titles of each as he did so. "Ahah! Here it is," he said, pulling the book from its space on the shelf, "Let's see here..."

Amy looked over to where Dr. Dilarious was standing, "Ooh! What are you looking at?" She said as she turned to run toward the doctor, dropping the flask she had been messing with, shattering it on the floor.

Dilarious winced at the sound of shattering glass and looked to see Amy running toward him. He sighed heavily, "Oh! Don't worry about that flask that you just broke, I'll just clean it up in a little while... as well as anything else you plan on demolishing while you're here!" He said, losing his patience. "I doubt your little mind can comprehend anything that's in this book.. But if you're really so interested, it's a book of notes I had taken while researching on-board the Rivalry," He grinned to himself.

"A book of...notes..." Amy said, suddenly uninterested. "Notes are.. BORING!" she yelled beside Dilarious, causing him to drop the book, ripping one of the pages in the process.

He covered his ears to block out the sound, "Bah! Can you possibly be any louder?" He knelt down and picked up the book and sighed in frustration. "Perhaps you would enjoy spending your time outside...in the sun.. Perhaps you'd also like to go and pick some flowers.. by the Axiom.. away from me, Ms. Valentine?" Dilarious suggested, hopeful, but not betting on it.

Amy pondered his suggestion for a moment, "I mean, I could.. But I did that yesterday!" Amy yelled again, "Besides, there aren't that many flowers around.. I probably have more flowers on my shirt than around the Axiom!" She ran up to a counter that held beakers and flasks of many sizes. "Nah, I want to do something different today, like.. looking at all of the neat stuff you have!" She smiled.

"Bah!" Dilarious exclaimed, abandoning the thought of trying to convince her. He walked over to a table beside the bookshelf and grabbed an old roll of tape off of it.

As he began to tape the ripped-page in the book back together, the door to his office opened. He looked over to see EVE enter the building, "An EVE probe? Fantastic.. More problems.." He whispered to himself.

"Hey! It's Ee-vah!" Amy said, giggling, as she tried to imitate WALL-E. She ran to where EVE was standing and hugged her without giving her much warning.

EVE smiled with her eyes as she received Amy's surprise hug. "How are you?"

Amy released EVE from her hug and smiled as innocently as was possible, "I'm good! I was just hanging out with Doctor Dilly over there!" She giggled and pointed to said doctor, who winced at the name and shot a angry glare at her.

"For the last time, that is NOT my name! Either get it right or leave my office. I have no time for your games, or your ridiculous little nicknames." He placed his book of notes on the table and looked at it for a moment before turning his attention back to the two by the door. He looked at EVE again, "I had heard that an EVE probe was assigned work on demolishing the nearby trash tower." He noticed that EVE seemed confused, "Oh yes, that's right.. It was the blue-painted EVE probe that would be doing that.. Why the community insisted on painting all of those Axiom probes different colors, I haven't a clue.. Oh wait, it was to differentiate them from the so-called 'savior probe' or some nonsense.." His eyes pierced through EVE, "I suppose YOU are that EVE probe. Never doing any work just because the population believes that you've done enough, you and that WALL-E unit both.. They believe that you don't need to work again.. Ridiculous I say!"

Before EVE had a chance to defend herself, Amy filled that position. "Hey! That's not very nice of you to say! She does plenty of work! Her and WALL-E both."

Dilarious looked at her, annoyed. "Well, I still don't believe it.. As far as I'm concerned, daylight burns away and she is here, doing nothing. Absolutely nothing to clean up this world," He sighed for a moment, hoping a moment of silence would relieve his growing headache. "I have an idea. How about you, Ms. Valentine, go and play over by that trash tower, perhaps even be useful to society and help with it. You can take that EVE probe with you," He pointed at EVE, "Maybe we will all be fortunate enough to have you crushed by that blasted thing. Do the whole world a lot of good."

"Hey!..." Was all Amy could say before EVE stepped in front of her, Ion Cannon drawn and pointed at Dr. Dilarious.

Dilarious quickly put his arms up in the air, "Oh please, don't shoot!" He said sarcastically.

EVE looked to her left a little, while still keeping Dilarious in her view, "Amy.. go play.. WALL-E down street," She returned her full attention to the doctor, "I.. talk with him."

Amy nodded slowly, backing away to the door, "Alright... I'll see you later, E-vah!" She said as she turned around and ran through the door.

"Alright, enough of this nonsense." Dilarious said, lowering his arms and crossing them in front of his chest, "Such anger.. Something you should not possess. It's intriguing, actually. I had always heard that you and that WALL-E unit possessed emotions. I didn't believe it, but now.. I'm having second thoughts." He walked over to EVE, "Would you be so kind as to point that cannon of yours elsewhere? Preferably somewhere not in my office.."

EVE slowly nodded and put away her Ion Cannon.

"Alright, since we are a bit more civilized now, what can I do for you?"

EVE looked down for a moment before raising her head, eyes in slight downward crescents, "Dream.."

"Dream you say?" Dilarious thought a moment, "Ah yes. I do dream. I dream of good things and bad things.. Beautiful things and ugly things.. You see? That's one thing that makes _me _human. _I_ dream.. And _I_ feel emotions. _I_ feel pain.. I can't say anything about _you_ though, EVE probe," Dilarious sharply answered.

EVE looked at him, the sadness in her eyes replaced with slight annoyance, "No... I dream," she replied.

Dilarious chuckled out-loud, "You? Dream? Blasphemy! Robots don't dream, they cannot dream," he stated matter-of-factly, turning around and taking a few paces back. He stood there for a moment, in thought, before turning around to face EVE once again, "Fine, let's assume you had this _dream_.. What was it about?"

EVE's eyes once again formed downward crescents as she answered, "WALL-E.. Gone.."

"Gone you say?" Dilarious asked, "Curious.. Was this dream of a past event?"

EVE nodded, "Six.. months."

Dilarious looked at EVE for a moment before turning around and walking off to the back room of his office.

EVE hovered there, bemused at the situation. She looked around the room, taking in her surroundings. She noticed beside one of the tables on the far side of the office, on the floor, an area of shattered glass. She smiled to herself, _Amy.. No wonder Dr. Dilarious is angry._ She was snapped away from her thoughts at the sound of a door opening.

Dilarious emerged from the back room with a device in his hand.. EVE noticed it looked smiliar to the device that Captain McCrea had used on her to view the footage from Earth six months ago. The only difference was that this one had more buttons.

"Alright then," Dilarious pulled EVE further into the room and placed the device on her head. "Stay still while I program this to view footage from six months ago." He punched in a code and a hologram projected onto the wall from the device. He positioned EVE so that the projection would land on a blank white wall of the office.

The scenes projected from the device brought back horrible memories for EVE. The first images were of when Captain McCrea placed a similar device on her head to see footage from Earth. She watched all of her memories play on-screen, and heard her voice when she had finally realized there was something more to WALL-E than she had originally seen. She then re-lived the time that WALL-E had been electrocuted by AUTO on-board the Axiom, watching him disappear from view as he fell into the garbage vent.

"Interesting.." Dilarious said as he paused the footage for a moment. "From what I've seen so far, it seems that you have, indeed, developed emotions.." He thought for a moment, "Okay, continuing on."

He pressed a few more buttons and another scene appeared on screen. It showed EVE's Point of view as she worked frantically to rebuild the battered WALL-E. She watched as WALL-E was revived as a shell of his former self. She watched as he tracked away from her life. "No..." she whispered, "WALL-E..."

Dilarious looked at her and paused the image once again. "Sadness.. I see." He turned off the device and removed it from her, "Well. In those images, I see you've experienced joy, fear, sadness..." he stopped for a moment, looking directly at her, "..and even love."

EVE looked up at him.

Dilarious just shook his head, "Anyway.. this was your dream?"

EVE nodded, "Last part.."

"I see.. Well, if you came to me hoping that I could fix this malfunction of yours, then you'll be disappointed. I could fix it, but.. you would lose all of your memories, all of your emotions, a complete system wipe is the only fix.. Though, that doesn't necessarily sound like a bad thing.. I'd be glad to perform the procedure on you. It's quick and painless.. And you'll be exactly what you and that WALL-E unit SHOULD be.. a mindless robot.

EVE looked at him agrily, though keeping her cool, despite the constant flow of insults from him.

"No? That's a shame.. It is interesting, though," Dilarious pondered, "You possess a human-like ability by dreaming and by showing emotions. It's as if a human soul was in..." Dilarious stopped, mid-sentence. A grin grew on his face, "I'll tell you what.. Since I can't help you rid of your dreams.. how about I implement a series of upgrades to you? As an apology.. Perhaps that WALL-E unit of yours as well, though we'll see about that later.."

EVE's eyes widened for a moment before gaining a suspicious look, "What upgrades?"

Dilarious's lips curled into a wider smile as he responded, "Well, I figure that perhaps the ability to greatly assist in the clean-up efforts would help to balance the negative experiences brought about by the dreams. One treatment for depression in a human is to keep their mind active and off the negative thoughts. The same applies here. I install upgrades to your systems and you'll be able to take on a much wider range of tasks, therefore keeping you busy and away from negative thoughts."

EVE still looked suspicious, "Why help now?"

Dilarious sighed in response, "Don't get me wrong, I don't like the idea of you possessing what should be reserved for human-beings.. But It would be a great service to the community if you were able to greatly help."

EVE pondered his offer for a moment before finally nodding in agreement.

"Ah yes, quite excellent! I will send word when the first upgrade is designed and ready!" Dilarious said with a smile on his face. "I'll describe the upgrades in detail at a later time.. Until then, please be gone and leave me to my work." He turned around and walked back to the back room of his office, closing the door behind him.

EVE stood there for a moment, before sighing to herself and turning to leave the building. She needed to make sure Amy got back home safely and needed to head home herself, with WALL-E. Tomorrow would be time to get back to work.

* * *

Dilarious closed the door behind him, locking it after he did so. He walked swiftly over to his desk, grabbed a key that he kept in a secret compartment of his desk, and walked over to a safe that was tucked away in the closet. He unlocked the safe and took out two blueprints, both rolled up. He walked over to his desk and placed one to the side, opening the other one. "Ah yes... My life's work will soon be complete, as will my future life.." He laughed to himself and turned on a speaker that was on his desk. "Dr. Henry Gavel," he said, giving the machine the destination of his call.

"Hello?" a voice said through static on the speaker.

"Gavel, I have some news that you may find interesting," replied Dilarious, getting down to the business at hand.

"Ah, Dr. Dilarious, sir. It's very good to hear from you... What news do you speak of, sir?" Gavel asked.

Dilarious grinned to himself, "I had the EVE probe come to me just moments ago."

There was a pause for a second before Dr. Gavel replied, "..EVE probe, sir?"

"The EVE probe that everyone seems to want to worship as a being that brought everyone back to Earth.. It and that WALL-E unit.." Dilarious answered, "Apparently the EVE probe has had a dream," He said in disgust.

"A dream? I didn't know robots could dream.." Gavel said through another batch of static.

"Hold on one moment..." Dilarious pressed a few more buttons on the machine to re-adjust the frequency of the call. "There.. that should be better. And yes, a dream.. Also the rumors about that EVE probe and WALL-E unit appear to be true.. They do possess emotions, though that's not why I've called. When speaking to it, my eyes were opened up to something."

Gavel hesitated for a moment before speaking, "..What's that, sir?" Had his mentor in engineering finally decided to accept the fact that robots should be welcomed to have human-like abilities, such as emotions or dreams? Whatever hopes Gavel had quickly disappeared.

"I realized that my life's work is finally almost complete! Love is the most powerful of emotions, yet it is also the most fragile," Dilarious paused for a moment before continuing, "That EVE probe is loved by many.. It may be the ticket to realizing my dream!" His grin widened at the thought.

Gavel paused for a moment, "How so?"

Dilarious thought back for a moment before continuing, "When I was a resident on-board the Rivalry, every human on-board was a slave to technology. They could hardly think on their own. Well, I was not one of them. I stayed locked up in my quarters. I used the ships computer terminals to learn more about every possible subject.. Engineering fascinated me.. Science intrigued me greatly.. I had to learn more!" Dilarious paused to take a breath, "And so I did.. I locked myself into my quarters and kept active by constructing my own robots from parts I 'borrowed' from the engineering bay. My knowledge grew vastly, but there was a problem.."

"What was the problem?" Gavel asked, interested in this opened window to his mentor's past.

"I was growing older," Dilarious answered, "There was so much to learn, yet I was growing older.. There was no way I could learn everything by the time I died.. Nor would I want to die. Even if I lived to learn as much as I wanted, there would still be more out there that would intrigue me.. More scientific discoveries are waiting to be made! So I set a goal to research computer AI, and that, after many years, led me to the discovery that it may be possible to transfer one's mind... one's very soul onto a storage device and implanted into a machine. A chip may be able to do that."

Gavel's voice raised in surprise and shock, "Sir! You're thinking of doing this to yourself? Has it even been tested?"

"I had tested it on a rat that had somehow found its way on-board the Rivalry, possibly thanks to rodents that had made their way on-board seven hundred years ago.. No way of knowing for sure.. I digress.. It was a success. The rodent had been successfully transferred to the memory-slot of one of my robots. It couldn't move, however. It probably lacked the mental capacity to understand the workings of a robot. My mind, however, can." Dilarious grinned. "I'll tell you more about it later. There's work to be done!" He turned off the speaker before Gavel could address any more of his concerns to him.

"Time to work.. But first, I need to clean up the mess that child made.." He set down the blueprints and walked off to prepare for a long night.


	3. Chapter Three: Tractor Beam Attachment

Alrighty then! Another one down.. I'm liking this weekly update cycle. Allows me to take time to do other things.. Like play games.. Or read fanfictions.. or get ideas for my own fanfictions..

Anyway, I can't gaurantee that the weekly updates will be constant.. Right now I'm aiming for a release every thursday. We'll see if I can keep that up.

Okay, this is a bit longer of a chapter, I hope you enjoy it!

**Chapter Three: The Tractor-Beam Attachment**

EVE was awoken by a quiet-sounding crash. She looked around, searching for the source of the sound.

It was dark within the confines of WALL-E's truck, and relatively quiet as well. Things seemed peaceful, undistrubed. It felt like a normal night.. EVE shook off the sound she had heard and lowered her head back into her slumber.

A moment later, another crash sounded, causing EVE to raise her head once more. Her eyes were wide open now, fully alert. She once again looked around the room. Not noticing anything in the dark, she rose up out of her resting state and made her way to the light switch, flipping it on and lighting the room.

She once again anaylzed the room, nothing was on the floor that didn't belong, so nothing could have fallen off a shelf. _Shelf. Wait..._ EVE noticed something missing from the bottom shelf. _Where's WALL-E?_ "WALL-E?" She looked around. Not finding him, she began to panic. _Oh no.. No.. Where is he? _"WALL-E!" She called out again, this time a little louder. _Calm down, EVE.. He probably just went outside, that might have been the sound you heard.. the door opening and closing._ She calmed herself down a bit before looking up to the hole in the roof, readying to lift herself up and out of it. She stopped, "Huh?"

The sky was a dark red in color, clouds easily visible, gliding quickly across the sky. A bright flash, orange in color, pierced through the clouds, quickly falling out of view. Another crash sounded shortly after, this time louder. EVE's eyes went wide in realization as she quickly flew through the hole and onto the roof of the truck. She audibly gasped at what she was greeted by.

The sky was a hellish red and black, clouds blanketed it as far as the eye could see... Though it wasn't normal clouds, it was smoke. The ground was riddled with craters, erasing from existence the structures that were once towers had collapsed, scattering trash in every direction.

EVE could hardly speak at the sight of the destruction before her, though she did manage, "How..." She looked around, frozen in place. Ahead of her, she saw a large structure, badly damaged, and bleeding molten metal from several large puncture wounds to its hull. The Axiom.

EVE shook out of her frozen state as she realized there was other problems as well. "WALL-E!" She yelled loudly, looking around intently.

He was no where in sight. Had he been crushed in the chaos that was going on? _No... he can't be.._ She said in disbelief. What was he doing out here anyway? Why would he go out in this..? Was he already out here when it started..? Why hadn't she heard him?

She shook her head violenty. This was not the time to ask questions, she had to find him. She launched herself from the roof.

Hopefully it wasn't already too late.

A few minutes had past, and EVE had found herself in a fairly dark area of the burning ruins of the city. "WALL-E?" she cried out, worried. She seemed to be all alone in the unkind darkness of the city... Alone without WALL-E. "WALL-E!" She cried again, flying through the empty streets of the jungle of burning buildings and rubble.

She continued her search, failing to find him, or any other living person or robot for that matter. Where was everyone?

The wind picked up and thunder clashed in the atmosphere. _Great.. a storm too? I don't need all of this... WALL-E...please be safe.._

Lightning flashed, lighting the landscape for an instant. From what EVE could see, nothing was spared by this... this... What was this, anyway? What was going on? How did this happen? EVE shook herself again, freeing her of the haunting questions. She had no idea what was going on, but whatever it was, it had ruined the lives of everyone.. perhaps forever.

She continued flying through the city, looking for any signs of life.. any signs of WALL-E. She flew in and out of buildings, blasting anything that got in her way. She was becoming desperate. She flew into a large clearing, stopping abruptly. "WALL-E..." She was losing hope.

"Ee-vah!" A voice echoed. It was familiar, very familiar.. Its sound.. and the way it said her name. EVE instantly knew who that voice belonged to.

"WALL-E!" She yelled, flying in the direction of the sound.

"Ee-vaaah!" The voice sounded once again, seeming further away than previously. EVE sped up in response. _I'm not going to lose you again.. do you hear me?_ "NEVER!" She screamed.

She flew down a narrow street at nearly supersonic speeds, narrowly dodging an abandoned warehouse on the other side. She entered another clearing. It was strange, the area was bordered by several giant Trash Skyscrapers, the tips of each extending out of view into the thick clouds of smoke. There were fires scattered all over the towers, smoke stacks rising up and adding to the clouds. Pools of molten metal bled down some of the towers, landing in lakes of lava.

EVE looked toward the center of the opening. A small pile of trash-cubes rose up like a pedestal, reaching several meters high, and several more wide. It almost resembled the base of another trash tower, as if it were in the process of being built. Only one person could build one of these...

"WALL-E!" EVE called out happily. WALL-E stood on top of the trash pile. EVE didn't know why he was here, but she didn't care either. She was just happy that she had found him.. happy that he was alright. She flew forward, only to run into an invisible force, pushing against her at the same force as she pushed forward, "Huh?"

The sky turned into a blaze of fire and lightning began to strike everywhere around them. A loud roaring sound echoed across the valley of trash and flaming objects began to fall from the sky at incredibly fast speeds, landing all around them.

WALL-E looked terrified. He hid in his little compact-box shape, trembling. "WALL-E!" EVE yelled, trying to force her way through the invisible barrier.

Among the sounds of the roaring, flaming objects, another sounded. This one was incredibly loud... deafening. Windows shattered in the buildings behind EVE. She looked up, and saw a giant sphere of fire pushing through the atmosphere towards them at an alarming rate. EVE's eyes went wide in fear.

**Three.** A countdown timer appeared in the top-right of her vision, almost as if it had been pre-programmed for this event. _No!_ She had to do something!

She pushed with all of her might in an attempt to break through the barrier, but failed. The sphere of Fire descended rapidly, closing in on one location.. Closing in on WALL-E.

**Two.**

EVE looked up and stopped. Her eyes went wide in disbelief as she followed the fiery object as it neared its target. She looked down at WALL-E as he trembled in his boxed-form. She cried on the inside as she realized it was hopeless... She had failed.

**One.**

WALL-E lifted his head out of his boxed-from, still trembling. He nodded slightly and she heard one thing whisper into her mind, louder than the deafening noise present. "Ee-vah.."

I**mpact.**

* * *

"WALL-E!" EVE shouted amid sobs, waking up abruptly to a dark room. She looked around slowly, noticing nothing out of the ordinary. She glanced up to the hole in the roof. It revealed a quiet, peaceful night sky, untouched by the flames of her dream.. _Dream.._ It all had been a dream.. Another cursed dream! It seemed so real.. It even started like this.

It had been a week since she had visited Dr. Dilarious about her problem, and it seemed that her problem may have been solved. She hadn't had any dreams ever since that visit.. Except for now. It seemed to have come back in full force, and in a new form.

EVE sighed and hovered to the entrance of the truck. She turned to face the darkness that engulfed their little home, things were truly peaceful tonight. _Good... Stay that way._ She turned around and pulled the lever, opening the door to the outside. She stayed in place for a moment, looking outside at the sleeping city. She nodded slowly and moved outside.

She looked around, the darkness of the night swallowing all of the city, the Axiom barely visible in the distance. She shook her head slightly, looking down to the ground in thought. Why would these dreams not leave her alone? She never asked for them.. Had she?

This dream had been so vague, yet so clear.. Could it possibly be a warning? No, that's silly talk. No one could predict the future.. No one. She began to relive the dream, the skies turned to fire around her. The ground was lava, and the Axiom in the distance bled molten metal. Her eyes closed as she lowered her head. She whimpered at the scenes. Her WALL-E had been taken away from her, she had watched it.. It felt so real.

She looked back up, opening her eyes in the process. The destruction in her mind replaced by the cool, dark blue and black of the night. She shook her head softly and headed back up the ramp to the truck. She took a final look outside before closing the door, locking her into the safety of the truck.

"Ee-vah?" She glanced over to the sound and noticed in the dark of the room the faint outline of WALL-E in front of the shelf. He looked at her. She couldn't tell for sure, but she swore she saw worry in his optics.

She sighed, "WALL-E.." She watched as his silhouette moved to the light switch and turned them on. It was clear to her now, he was worried. There was no more hiding it, she would have to confess her dreams to him.. or would she?

"What... wrooong?" He asked, moving toward her slowly.

EVE looked around the room, trying to come up with an excuse that would explain her behavior. Thinking of none, she sighed and looked into his optics in defeat. "Dream.." She thought about it again, remembering the research she had done on dreams. What she had didn't fit that category, not fully at least. No, it was something more than a dream. "Not dream.. Nightmare."

WALL-E looked at her for a moment before sighing and moving in front of her. He looked intently into her eyes, expecting more of an explanation.

EVE wasn't about to oblige. She didn't want to relive that dream.. That nightmare. In the end, she just shook her head, "I.. can't.."

WALL-E tilted his head slightly, "Whhy?"

EVE's gaze fell to the floor. Why couldn't she? It wasn't real/ There was no objects falling from the sky. WALL-E wasn't gone, he was here.. Why couldn't she just explain that awful nightmare to him? Maybe it would help to talk about it. Maybe... Or maybe it would just hurt more. That's what it was, it hurt. It hurt to think about WALL-E being gone.. being destroyed. She began to sob. "Painful.."

WALL-E's optics went wide in surprise. "Noo.. No crry! Pleaase.." He pleaded. He didn't like seeing EVE sad, especially crying. It tore him up inside to see her in pain, no matter how great that pain was. It clearly seemed, though, that EVE was in a lot of pain by this... dream. He treaded to her, quickly closing the gap in-between them and brought her into his embrace. A simple hug wouldn't be a cure for her pain.. but maybe it could be a treatment.

EVE lowered her head and fell into his embrace, still sobbing. "Sorry.." She whispered.

WALL-E lightly shook his head, "No sorry... I'm heere"

EVE softly nodded, falling deeper into his embrace. "WALL-E..?" She asked quietly, thinking of what she wanted to say. She wanted to get everything off of her chest. She wanted to tell him truly how she felt, even if she, herself, didn't quite understand it yet. "Never.. go.." Was all she could manage to whisper.

She trembled softly at what his answer could possibly be. What if these nightmares were telling of something to come? _No..._ That's silly, how could one see the future? That couldn't be it. But it scared EVE.

"Ne..ever!" She heard WALL-E say. She felt comforted by the thought. WALL-E would never leave her. And she would never leave him. "Never.." She agreed.

A moment past, EVE relished this time with WALL-E, never wanting it to end. She smiled to herself softly and closed her eye forms. She was safe. WALL-E made sure of that. She would keep him safe as well.. She would guarantee that. "Rest?" WALL-E asked, breaking EVE from her thoughts. She smiled and nodded, "Rest." She agreed.

* * *

A beep echoed through the room, lit by the light coming through the hole in the roof. WALL-E groggily awoke from his slumber, groaning slightly at his lack of energy. He slowly made his way to the rail that held his treads and attempted to reattach them to his rollers. He sighed. This task was always a pain.

After a moment of struggling, he managed to attach them and rolled over to the door to open it. He pulled the lever and looked over to EVE. _Still asleep.. That's good, she needs rest._ He nodded to himself in agreement. She had been through a lot.. He could tell.

The door came to a stop as the ramp landed on the cement, and WALL-E treaded outside and up onto the roof of the truck. His solar panels opened up to recieve the rays from the rising sun. The light painted the ground in rust in all directions. WALL-E sighed at this. It was a repetitive scene. He had seen it every day for seven hundred years. It was time for a change, and he knew it. All of that brown replaced with green. He smiled to himself, that would cheer EVE up.

WALL-E was interupted from his thoughts as the "Fully Charged" sound echoed from him. He nodded to himself and then sighed. Hal used to always hang around him. Keep him company.. He missed him.

Hal had just disappeared one day, about three months ago. It wasn't clear whether he ran off or.. died.. It was strange, though.. Why would he run off? Was it because of EVE? It was a possability.. But Hal had always seemed to like EVE, why would he run off because of her? It didn't make sense. No, he had probably died.. He was probably old... How long did cockroaches live for anyway? WALL-E shook his head. No use in thinking about the past.. If Hal wasn't dead, he had run off for a reason. A reason that would probably never be known to him.

He sighed again, starting down the ramp on the side of his truck to the bottom. He stopped for a moment as he saw a round, floating object in the distance. It was coming toward him at a fair speed. He tilted his head to the side slightly, "Huh?"

The object came closer to WALL-E, revealing itself as a Carrier-Bot. "Message from Dr. Dilarious!" it said in an emotionless voice.

WALL-E nodded slowly, still confused. "Shoow," he asked.

The Carrier-Bot simply opened a compartment in it's front and tossed out a holodisc at WALL-E.

The disc fell on WALL-E's body. "Whoa!" He said in alarm. He gently picked the disc up and scanned it. "Hmm..." He pressed a button and an image popped up from it. "AHHHH!" He screamed, dropping the object on the ground.

He moved closer to the projected image of an old man, which began to talk.

**"Time is short, so I will make this quick! The first upgrade for the EVE probe has been completed... This will be the first of three major upgrades to its systems."**

WALL-E looked at the hologram, confused. What upgrades? Why hadn't he known about this? His thoughts were interupted as the man in the hologram continued talking.

**"The first will be a tractor-beam attachment to the right arm of the EVE probe. It will be used in a similar fashion as the Ion Cannon. This will allow for easier and much more powerful lifting. This will make that little Stasis-field on the EVE probe obselete!"**

The man in the image grinned pridefully as he finished his statement.

**"The second upgrade will be a forcefield attachment, which will prevent many destructive forces from the outside getting in. I have designed it to be a one-way barrier – anything from the inside will be allowed out... for safety reasons."**

"Foooorce...feld?"

**"How does it work, you're probably asking.. Simple! Two batteries, each with a ten minute charge will be placed inside the EVE probe. When one battery's energy is depleted, the second will automatically assume control of providing power for the forcefield. While the second battery is doing so, the first battery will leach off the forcefield's energy and recharge. This pattern will continue for as long as the forcefield is active."**

The man's posture straightened and a wide grin grew on his face.

**"Quite genius, I know! It can be activated by simply ordering the protocols in place to activate it. In other words, just 'flip' the switch in your mind, and it will activate. No exterior activation is required."**

**"Thirdly, the last upgrade will be a special chip.."**

Dilarious's head lowered slightly and his already-wide grin turned into a mischievous smile as he continued.

**"Since communication is vital in any sort of operation, this chip will contain a database of more vocabulary for vocal-use. This will allow the EVE probe to speak more... human-like.. This will not change the probes personality. Oh, and one more point.. There is a possibility that this chip may help with the EVE probe's 'dream' problems."**

WALL-E's optics went wide in surprise. She had told other people about her dreams? Why hadn't she come to him? This stranger even knew about them.. Was he the only one that didn't know?

**"That is all of the upgrades. As I've said at the beginning of this message, the first upgrade is now ready for implementation. Come by whenever you're ready to begin the procedure."**

With a nod, Dilarious disappeared back into the disc.

WALL-E stood there for a moment, confused by the whole thing. Why had she kept this a secret from him? Not only had she told others about her dreams.. But she had also made plans to get these upgrades? It didn't make sense.. Why would she keep secrets from him? Were there more secrets that he didn't know about? He shook his head.

"WALL-E..?"

WALL-E turned around and saw EVE standing on top of the ramp, her eyes were wide in... fear?

He picked up the holodisc off the ground and moved toward EVE. He held the disc out for her and she slowly accepted it from him.

EVE sighed for a moment, "WALL-E.."

He put his hand up for a moment, looking into her eyes, "Upp...grads?" He struggled, looking at her with slight disappointment in his eyes.

EVE shook her head, "I..I wanted..t-tell you..." She stuttered sadly.

WALL-E continued to look at her, the disappointment still in his eyes. "Whyy...seecret? Why.. last..?"

EVE looked down, not wanting to see that disappointed look in WALL-E's eyes any longer. He was right, she should have told him. It wasn't right to have kept it all secret from him. "I..didn't want... worry you.." She began to sob.

WALL-E sighed and moved up to EVE and took her hand in his own. She looked up at him, "I'm.. sorry.." She said, still sobbing.

WALL-E shook his head lightly, "Nooo... I sorrry.." He brought her in for a hug, which she accepted. "Thiiis... help wiitth.. dream?" He asked and felt EVE nod in response. "Okaay.. Leeet's.. gooo."

* * *

"Yes, Mr. McCrea, I am only happy to help the EVE probe with these upgrades, it will only benefit the colony as well," Dilarious smiled.

"Well, you still haven't told me what these upgrades are.. In what way will they help the colony?" Captain McCrea asked, curious as to what these 'upgrades' could do.

"Ah, yes.." Dilarious nodded, "Well, there will be three upgrades in total; a tractor-beam attachment to the probe's right arm, used in a similar manner as she would her Ion Cannon. This will allow for much more heavy lifting, from whole vehicles to multiple objects, such as a pile of rubble. It will be very handy, I assure you."

Captain McCrea looked thoughtful at the implications of such technology. He nodded, "Alright, that sounds resourceful. What else?"

Dilarious smiled at the answer, "Well, the second upgrade will be a forcefield, which can be used to reduce dangers in high-danger tasks... such as falling objects and such," Dilarious brought his hand up and under his chin, thinking. "I suppose it could be used in environmental hazards as well.. Such as fires.."

McCrea nodded, "That sounds like an excellent upgrade for EVE. Wouldn't want her to get hurt on the job.."

"Yes.." Dilarious agreed, _She wouldn't be useful to me then.._ "The third upgrade will be a special microchip that will expand its vocabulary, and possibly remove the burden of its dreams." He smiled, almost evilly.

McCrea raised an eyebrow at Dilarious's expression, "What are the side effects of that microchip?"

Dilarious dropped the smile and looked almost serious, "There's no side effects! It will just expand her vocabulary by quite a bit.. If there is any side effects, it will be the removal of the probe's troublesome dreams.."

The door in the other room opened, causing the two men to stop their discussion. Upon entering the room, they noticed who it was.

"WALL-E! EVE!" The Captain shouted happily. "It's good to see you two, I was just speaking with the doctor here about those new upgrades for you, EVE. They sound promising!"

"Well, of course they are! I designed them..." Dilarious said, coming up from behind McCrea. "Ah, well look who came with the probe. The one and only WALL-E unit.." He added sarcastically.

EVE narrowed her eyes in Dilarious' direction, as if to say "Watch it!" Dilarious only smiled at this.

"Have any more of those nasty dreams, probe?"

EVE continued staring, and nodded her head slightly.

"Ah, I see. Well, spare me the details. Are you ready for the first upgrade?"

EVE again nodded, "Ready."

"Excellent! We will perform the procedure on-board the Axiom, in the diagnostics room. That rookie, John, shall be present to take notes, since he's curious about the engineering field." Dilarious walked to the door, "Well, come along. I haven't got all day!"

* * *

Dilarious was finishing preperations in the diagnostics room to begin the procedure. Everything was about ready. He estimated a time to completion in his head, "How long do you believe a procedure like this would last, John?" He questioned.

"Uh.. Three hours?" John answered nervously, surprised by the question.

"Close, it would normally take two and a half hours to complete a procedure such as this.. It will only take about half an hour for me." Dilarious grinned. "Pay close attnetion, take notes and perhaps you'll be like me some day... Wrinkles included." He chuckled.

John nodded and readied the portable terminal he had brought with him, "Ready whenever."

Dilarious nodded, turning toward WALL-E and Captain McCrea, "You two will have to wait outside, don't need... unwanted distractions... That is unless you want something to happen to the probe?"

WALL-E shook his head and turned to EVE, who stood next to him, holding his hand.

EVE looked at him and smiled with her eyes, assuring him everything would be fine.

WALL-E slowly nodded and let go of her hand, turning to leave out the door with the Captain.

"Alright, probe, time to deactivate you for the procedure, we'll see you once it's over," Dilarious said, grinning.

EVE looked at him, nodding slowly, and headed to the table to start the procedure.

It had been nearly an hour; much longer than the doctor had said it would take.

WALL-E stayed quiet, sitting beside the door to the diagnostics room. Nervousness plagued his mind as he fidgeted with his hands. _What if they mess up? Will she be okay? Will...I ever see her __again..?_ WALL-E shook his head at the thoughts. Of course she would be okay! He would see her again.. That didn't erase the fright from his mind, though. There was always the possibility of an error during the procedure. WALL-E compacted himself and trembled at the thought.

Captain McCrea sat on a bench with a portable terminal on a hovering table in front of him. He glanced at the trembling robot by the door and chuckled, "It'll be alright, WALL-E! I'm sure the doctor knows what he's doing." He assured with a smile.

WALL-E lifted his head slightly out of his boxed-form, still trembling, "But... Itt's.. loongger than.."

"Than he said? Yes, it has been.." The Captain finished. He pressed a button on his terminal and the holographic screen disappeared. "I'm sure everything's fine. Half an hour sounded a little too fast, in my opinion. He may be taking his time to do a good.. no, perfect job." McCrea still saw WALL-E trembling and he sighed, "Relax, WALL-E! If they don't finish up soon, I'll go and see what the problem is."

WALL-E slowly nodded in agreement, "O-okaay.."

A few moments of silence led to a sigh from WALL-E. It was taking too long. Something must have gone wrong. Why wouldn't they come out and tell them? This waiting was excruciating!

"Complete!" A voice said suddenly, the door opening and causing WALL-E to yell in surprise. Dilarious appeared through the door and spotted the frightened bot that was now cowering in a corner. A smirk came to his mouth, "Oh, I'm sorry about that! I didn't mean to frighten you!" He continued his grin. "Anyway, the procedure is complete.. Perhaps it took a bit longer than anticipated, but perfection is guaranteed!"

WALL-E emeged from his box'd form completely and rushed past Dilarious, pushing him to the side. "Bah! Ungrateful robot!" He shouted angrily.

EVE lay on the table, still deactivated from the procedure. She looked the same as before, but would she be the same? WALL-E swiftly moved to the side of the table, rising up on his treads so he could see her better. Worry showed in his optics.

"She's fine, WALL-E!" John said from the side of the room, smiling. "Dr. Dilarious worked at an insane speed implementing that tractor-beam to her. Especially for him being as old as he is.."

"Watch your tongue, boy!" Dilarious warned, walking up behind WALL-E and reaching over to reactivate EVE.

EVE awoke and rose from her lying state on the table, confused for a second before realizing where she was.

"There," Dilarious spoke, "Let us head outside now and test your new... toy."

* * *

It was a cloudy day, the sun hiding and peeking through the clouds every so often.

The group walked down one of the exit ramps of the Axiom, Dilarious at the lead. "Hmm, we need a good sized object to accurately test the tractor-beam.." Dilarious looked around, running through possible candidates for his testing, "Ah, yes. That'll do!" He pointed toward a large, rusted truck. "Get out your tractor-beam and pick that up!" He ordered EVE, who looked at him, confused. He sighed, "It's attached to your Ion Cannon, equip it and search your systems for the protocol I installed for the tractor-beam. Activate it like you would the Ion Cannon.. It's simple."

EVE nodded slowly, switching her right arm into her Ion Cannon. She aimed at the truck and searched for the installed protocol that Dilarious spoke of. Finding it, she activated it and watched as a beam of light-blue energy shot to life from a space right under the muzzle of her Ion Cannon. The energy wrapped around the truck, engulfing it in light-blue light.

The crowd around her marveled at the display. "Ooh's" and "Ahh's" could be heard, as well as a "Whoa!" from a specific robot. EVE smiled slightly.

"Excellent! Now, lift your arm up," Dilarious said.

EVE looked at him and nodded. Lifting her arm as instructed, the truck in-turn lifted with ease. Her eyes went wide in awe as she realized that she was doing literally no work to accomplish this feat. It was as if the truck was weightless.. "How?" she asked, looking up at the truck that was now high in the sky.

Dilarious grinned at her question, "Easy! Whatever object that beam surrounds locks into a state of no-gravity. In a sense, gravity does not exist inside the containment-field that is formed from the tractor-beam."

"But.." John asked wide-eyed, "H-how is that even possible?"

"Yeah.. That doesn't make sense.. Everything on the outside is fine, but whatever is inside of that beam's grip is suddenly weightless? Captain McCrea added.

"Honestly, it's difficult to explain, especially to those with lesser knowledge.." Dilarious grumbled. "The technology is advanced, and I worked for years to perfect it." He turned to EVE, who was now twirling the truck around in the sky, giggling slightly. "Hmph, if you're going to use it to play games with, I should just take it away."

EVE stopped twirling the truck about and looked at Dilarious, "Sorry.."

Dilarious shook his head, "Yeah.. Well, remember that if you let that truck go while swinging it around like that, momentum will again apply to it, if you know what I'm getting at.." EVE nodded in response. "Now, there is a limit to what that beam can hold. I estimate that truck to weigh about.. I'd say two tons. That may seem easy to lift for you. But I'd say it would be very difficult to lift something weighing up to eight or even ten tons. Sure, you can try to lift anything, but remember that the heavier the object is, the more power that is required to run the beam. It could be very dangerous for you if you try to do too heavy of lifting."

EVE lowered the truck gently back to the ground and nodded slowly in response.

"Very well, then. I must get back to my lab. I'll need the EVE probe to come with me... alone.. so I can make one final adjustment." Dilarious stated.

WALL-E moved over to EVE in response and turned toward Dilarious, causing him to sigh. "Look, I don't need interuptions doing the check-up. This old man is tired and is prone to mistakes. So.. If you would be so kind as to wait at.. wherever you live.. I'll have her back to you soon."

WALL-E stood there for a moment, pondering what he was told, and nodded slowly.

Dilarious seemed satisfied, "Very good.. Come with me, probe.."

* * *

Dilarious led EVE to the back-office of his lab and closed the door behind them. EVE looked around the small, cramped space, noticing a desk stationed in-between a small, metal bookcase on the left and a safe about the height of the desk on the right. The desk held an old terminal on it, incapable of projecting a holographic screen, and several storage discs scattered around on its surface.

"Hold out your right arm, let me check something." Dilarious commanded, drawing EVE's attention. She nodded and did as she was told, holding out her arm and arming the weaponry. "Good.. All looks in order," He said, examining the tractor-beam. "Appears to be in sturdy condition and functioning properly. But there was another reason why I asked you here.." He grinned.

EVE's eyes narrowed in suspician, "What?"

Dilarious shook his head slightly, feigning a sigh of frustration, "Well.. I was lucky to acquire the parts needed to produce that part of yours.." He said, glancing at her right arm, "I'm afraid for the next parts, I may need extra supplies.. and schematics that I had drawn up several years ago."

EVE nodded slowly, "And..?"

Dilarious looked at her, annoyed, "And? Isn't it obvious? I need you to go and fetch them for me! I am but an old man.. A trip like that would possibly be the death of me," He lowered his head, in a depressed expression "I wouldn't want to die without at least first contributing to the community in a positive fashion.."

EVE's eyes return to normal and nodded in agreement, "Okay.. Where?"

Dilarious looked back up at EVE and smiled, "My old ship...The Rivalry."


	4. Chapter Four: To The Rivalry!

So much for bringing out the chapters weekly and on-time.. I shouldn't have said anything, it jynx'd me!

In any case, FINALLY an update! Though it's much shorter than the other chapters.. I apologize for that, couldn't make it any longer without making it drag out needlessly.

I'm not going to make any more promises on my update schedule.. I'm busy with things now in real-life. Also working on several other projects related to future projects I will be doing. Also planning one related to this story.

But I digress.. On to the chapter.

**Chapter Four: To The Rivalry!**

EVE sat in her dormant state a-top the Axiom, her head raised out of her body and aware. The moon normally kept her company on these lonely nights. Tonight was different as the moon hid behind the clouds, barely peeking out down at her. The world was quiet; the whistling of the wind was all that was audible. It was peaceful.

EVE looked over the edge of the Axiom. The town slept a peaceful slumber.. One that she couldn't share. Her mind was active; anxiety and excitement both co-existing within her mind.

She was excited at first to go on this trip that the doctor had asked her to take. It was a whole new part of the world. She wanted to share this adventure with WALL-E. She wanted to be alone with him, with no work to get in their way. Her excitement was quickly decimated when Dilarious rejected the idea. She tried to argue but he shot back his reasoning. As much as she hated it.. It did make sense. It was a long trip, and there would be no way she could take WALL-E such a distance without a ship or other vehicle. It would be dangerous.

She didn't know whether or not WALL-E had been anywhere else in the world, or if he'd been stuck in this one area for his entire existence. It didn't matter now, though. Dilarious had won. Perhaps in the future she would have the chance to give WALL-E a view of the world away from here and the Axiom.

She sighed. It was so late now and she needed to get some rest for her trip tomorrow. She activated an internal clock to check the time. _Today.._ She corrected herself. It was 3:36 AM now, and she had to be ready to leave at 9:00 AM. She wouldn't get much rest to recharge for the trip.

She shook her head softly, "WALL-E... Wish you.. go too.."

"Go where?"

EVE turned around suddenly, her body now in an active state. "Midnight?"

Midnight, the black-painted EVE probe hovered in place watching EVE. Her eyes narrowed in response to her name, "That not name.."

EVE moved closer with a slight smile appearing in her eyes, "Amy say different."

Midnight scoffed at the response, "Amy construct me..? Design me..?" She waited a moment for a reponse. Hearing none, she continued, "No. Amy is little. Has no place assigning names."

EVE shook her head softly, "You like EVE-5? Or Black?"

Midnight sighed, "No.."

EVE moved closer to Midnight, placing one of her hands on her arm, "Then let Amy have fun. Midnight not bad name."

Midnight nodded slowly, "Okay.."

A long moment passed in silence, both probes lacking anything to say. EVE turned back toward the sleeping town. Midnight moved up beside her, looking on as well.

Midnight turned her head toward EVE, "Go where?"

EVE looked at her, surprised by the question, "Huh?"

"Go where?" Midnight repeated, "You say something about going somewhere.."

EVE lowered her gaze, "Oh.. Trip today.."

"Where?"

"Far away," EVE said, "To ship named 'Rivalry.'"

Midnight tilted her head slightly at EVE, "Why?"

EVE raised her eyes to meet Midnight's, "I tell later.. Come by ARV Bay and tell everyone.. before I go.."

Midnight slowly nodded her head, "Okay.."

EVE turned toward the direction of WALL-E's truck and readied to leave.

"Where go now?" Midnight asked.

EVE glanced over at Midnight one more time, "Need rest for trip."

Midnight nodded as she watched EVE take off back home. She sighed softly, "Back to patrol.."

* * *

"Are you prepared for your trip, probe?" Asked Dilarious, "There's no time to waste.. I'm an old man, and every minute you decide to waste here only grows me older.."

EVE rolled her eyes at the impatient doctor, "Almost.." She turned toward the entrance of the home she shared with WALL-E, and exchanged glances with said robot. He looked sad. "WALL-E.." She hovered to him, stopping only feet in front of him, "I'll be okay."

WALL-E looked at the ground, pondering what he wanted to say. He sighed, "I waaant.. gooo!"

"Not possible, I'm afraid," Dilarious said, walking up to the two, "The ship docked far away from here." He put a hand in the left pocket of his lab coat and brought out a small circular device. He pressed a button on its side and threw it to the ground.

On impact, the device projected an image upward, revealing a giant map of the world. A flashing white dot appeared on the blue-colored map. Dilarious pointed to the flashing dot and turned to WALL-E and EVE, "This is our location. As you can see, we are situated on the east coast of the North American continent. And.." A tiny flashing X appeared on the map, far away from the original dot. Dilarious then pointed to the X, "This is the location of the Rivalry. It's situated on a small chain of islands far out in the Pacific Ocean." He lowered his hand, and turned to WALL-E, "Now.. how do you expect the EVE probe to carry you that long a distance while also having her objectives to worry about?"

WALL-E stared at the map for a moment, before turning to look at EVE. He pondered the doctor's question for a moment before sighing in defeat and turned toward Dilarious, "Okaaay.."

Dilarious grinned at the defeated robot before turning toward EVE, "It's a long journey, but you remember what I told you. The weather over the ocean is dangerous, so you'll want to be alert.. And be sure to recharge your energy supply before making the trip across the ocean.. It will be unlikely that you'll find places to do so before reaching the Rivalry. Also.." Dilarious reached in his right pocket this time and pulled out another device, similar to the first, "You'll want to take this, it contains all of the required parts and possible locations of my notes."

EVE nodded, taking the device from the doctor and placed it safetly into her stasis chamber, allowing the stasis field to provide padding for the device. "Thank you."

"To access its data," Dilarious started, "Just press the button on the side and it will be transferred to your data storage automatically."

EVE nodded again and turned back toward WALL-E and hugged him, "Be back soon!" She let him go and looked down at him, hand in his, "Promise."

"Oh please, don't get emotional on me.. That false, artificial kind of robot emotion, I mean.." Dilarious looked to the ground, hand on his face and shook his head.

EVE sighed in response and nodded slowly to WALL-E, who in-turn nodded back. She let go of his hand and flew off toward the Axiom, taking the time to look back one more time.

EVE pressed a button on the side of the door and opened it. She moved inside and allowed the door to close behind her. She looked around the large, open room. The ARV Bay was as big as she remembered, capable of housing one of the two Axiom Return Vehicles.

There were two ARV Bays on-board the Axiom. In Bay 01, the ARV housed an army of little space-exploration probes. From what EVE understood, they were much cheaper to produce than the Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluators, so they could afford to produce a significant amount more. It would've been needed for them to fulfill their directives.

They were responsible for exploring the cosmos in-search of a new home for the humans if Operation Cleanup proved to be a failure, which it later proved to be. Later, it had been discovered that AUTO had dismissed their purpose early-on and shut down their ARV in an attempt to save resources. EVE wasn't sure what happened to the SEP probes.

ARV Bay 02 housed the EVE probes, and was EVE's home for seven-hundred years. That would've been fine if they were allowed freedom to be themselves. From early on, the EVE probes learned what fun was, and how to achieve it. There were many times when no-one was watching that they would play games of tag around the bay. It was good times.. But about four-hundred years ago, they were caught by GO-4 and reported to the then-Captain to say, they got in trouble for their reckless actions in the ARV Bay, so they were limited to their fun-times only on trips to Earth, when no one was looking, and alone without the company of their sisters.

EVE sighed at all of the memories and continued deeper into the bay. The blast doors on the far-side of the room were open, allowing sunlight in from the world outside. The ARV stayed in place collecting dust from lack of use. The day that EVE returned from Earth with WALL-E was the last time it had docked. There was no use for an ARV anymore.. The Axiom had finally returned home.

EVE turned left and followed the track that many robots used to get around to a room that branched off the bay. She opened the door and went inside.

The room was much smaller than the ARV Bay, but it was still a nice enough size to move around in freely.

"EVE!"

EVE turned toward the sound and smiled, "Aqua!" She hovered to where the Blue-painted EVE probe waited and hugged her. "How are you?"

Aqua smiled in return, "Good! Talk with sisters," She pointed to where the other EVE probes were. They were by a large window speaking about their upcoming tasks for the day.

EVE looked around, confused, "Where Midnight?"

Aqua shrugged, "Not back from patrol."

"Oh.." EVE sighed, "Need go soon.. Hope she hurry."

"EVE!" The other two probes said in unison as they raced each other to EVE.

EVE braced for impact as the green probe crashed into her resulting with both falling with the probe hugging a stunned EVE.

"No fair Emmy!" The red probe pouted to her victorious sister.

"I win! Sorry Rose."

EVE blinked as she realized where she was, "Um.. Emerald?"

Emerald looked down at her sister, "Yes?"

"Off?" EVE asked, waving her one free arm around in the air.

"Oh.. Sorry!" Emerald rose up off of EVE, allowing her to get up.

"How you?" Rose asked, helping EVE up.

EVE smiled slighty, "Good. But leave soon."

"Where go?" Emerald asked.

"Wait for Midnight.. Tell then."

"I'm here.."

EVE and her two sisters turned around and saw the black-painted probe moving toward them, Aqua moving with her. EVE smiled.

"Okay," Midnight stopped at the group, "Why take trip?"

Aqua tilted her head slightly, "Trip?"

EVE sighed, "Yes.. Let explain.." She began, "I tasked to go on trip," She paused a moment, noticing everyone was now looking at her, "Need obtain parts.. for someone."

Rose cut in, "How far?"

"Very," EVE replied, "On other side of world.."

"Why there? Parts not here?" Emerald asked.

EVE shook her head, "Not know.. He want data collected too."

"So.." Midnight cut in suddenly, the rest of the sisters looked over to her. She looked directly at EVE, almost as if trying to read her thoughts, "When back?"

EVE shook her head lightly and shrugged, "Don't know... Week?"

Midnight continued to stare for a moment before finally nodding slowly in acknowledgement.

"I need go," EVE concluded and looked at her sisters. She sighed, "Protect WALL-E.. Don't let him... hurt!" She glanced at each individual sister and waited for their nods. She looked at Midnight who was the last to nod. "Please.. Keep WALL-E safe. Know you each busy... Take turns watching him?"

The probes each nodded again. Satisfied, EVE turned toward the door and hovered to it, stopping only long enough to nod to her sisters one last time before leaving.

Midnight watched as the door shut behind EVE before turning to her sisters, "Okay.. Who first?"

* * *

"That is the last time I'm ever going to that blasted rust-bucket of a truck!" Dilarious yelled to himself as he burst through the door of his office. "Oh.. my back.." He stretched his back, allowing his back to pop in multiple places, "I can't handle walks like that. Cursed fragile body.."

He closed the door behind him and locked it before heading over to his desk. He pressed a button on his speaker, "Dr. Henry Gavel," He walked to the safe on the side of his desk and opened it, pulling out one of the two stored blueprints.

"Hello?" A voice sounded through static on the speaker.

"Again?" Dilarious groaned as he closed the safe and walked back to his desk.

"What?" The voice asked again through static.

"Hold on!" Dilarious spat as he pressed a few buttons on the speaker, "There.. Speak now, Gavel."

"Better, sir?" Gavel's voice came through clearly.

Dilarious smiled slightly, "Yes, remind me to replace this blasted phone soon. It gives me nothing but problems."

"Yes, sir," Gavel answered, "What can I do for you?"

Dilarious sat the plans in his hand on the desk and opened them. He smirked, "Phase two of my plan will take effect soon."

"Phase two, sir? Is EVE fully upgraded already?"

"No, not yet. I needed supplies that I do not have in my office for the second upgrade to the probes systems," Dilarious continued scanning over the plans, "I also require research notes for the final phase of my plan."

"Final phase, sir?" Gavel asked curiously.

"Yes, the construct that will be my final home."

Gavel breathed through the speaker, "Wait.. What about EVE? I thought you were upgrading her so she could be host for you.."

Dilarious laughed, "I am, though it will be temporary. Once I fully upgrade the probe, I will implant the chip into its systems and use it as a temporary body until the final construct is complete," Dilarious explained, "Through the probe, I will gain control of the area and ultimately the world. The upgrades I'm giving it will be the weapons to do so."

Gavel gasped loudly through the speaker, "Isn't that... a bit much, sir? Why would you want world domination?"

"I have no desire for world domination! I am no tyrant. I simply require authority to study and experiment uninterrupted," Dilarious took a breath and collected his thoughts, "In any case, the probe is on its way to you as we speak."

"...What?"

Dilarious grinned, "My research notes are on the Rivalry still. When the good Captain on the Axiom asked for a capable engineer to be transported to his ship, I was chosen and I had little time to fully gather my belongings before leaving.. That's why the probe is heading there now."

"But.." Gavel said quietly, "The Rivalry is a dangerous place for robots..."

Dilarious laughed loudly at the concern and grinned widely, "That will be childs-play compared to the dangers of phase two!"


	5. Chapter Five: Water For The Settlement

Check my profile page for updates on this and future stories. I will rarely, if ever, place an A/N at the beginning of my chapters from now on.

Enjoy the chapter!

**Chapter Five: Water For The Settlement**

The day was calm and peaceful; the wind blowing only slightly, stirring the dust on top of the ancient chain of mountains. An object approached from the northeast at incredible speeds, a trail of blue light following close behind.

EVE flew at a height about even with the top of this final obsticle of the mountain-chain. She smiled to herself as she approached the mountain-top.

_Three.._

She continued her flight aimed straight at the tip of the mountain.

_Two.._

Her eyes narrowed as the rocky face stared at her, unflinching.

_One.._

She nodded to herself in silent resolve.

_Now!_

She sped up and quickly arced up, missing the mountain by inches, and flew in a giant loop, once again coming inches away from the top of the mountain at the bottom of her descent. She sped away from the mountain as she came into the openess beyond the mountain range, leaving behind a large cloud of dust above the mountain.

EVE corkscrewed around as she continued her flight a short ways, her eyes formed in upward crescents. She stopped and looked back toward the mountain that was already a distance away from her. The entired mountain-top had been swallowed in a cloud of dust.

She sighed and turned away from the mountain and looked toward the vast fields that lay before her. _No more messing around..._ She thought as she opened up an image of the map that Dilarious had shown her. She was off-course. Her play-time had cost her a couple of hours. She closed the map file and aimed herself in the direction of her target and nodded to herself as she took off west.

* * *

WALL-E put the mini T-Rex toy on the freshly-cleaned shelf, giving it a clean home to live. M-O had come by the hour before to visit and had offered to help clean some of the accumulating dust out of his truck. WALL-E had agreed and cleared the place so M-O could work. He made quick work of cleaning the truck. WALL-E's job, however, was a bit slower as he picked up all of his treasures and placed them all where they belonged.

"Done!" WALL-E said and moved toward the entrance to get a view of the whole interior. He nodded happily at the work he and his best friend had done.

His arms slowly slumped to his sides and he looked down in a defeated manner, _Now what to do..?_

He moved over to the old TV on the other end of the truck and turned it on. He pushed in the tape and "Hello Dolly!" popped up on the screen. He stood there and watched it for awhile."Baaah.." he said finally as he turned off the TV, uninterested in the film now.

"Neeed...doo soomethiing.." he sighed. What could he do? There was nothing that he could do around town today. He'd just get in the way. He could compact trash and deliver them to the Axiom, where the WALL-A's would store it until it could be disposed of in space. But that would be very time-consuming without a transport unit, and there would be none available for the next week.

He shook his head, "Useless..." he couldn't do anything to help anyone now, so he had nothing to do. And with EVE gone for the next week, he had no one to keep him company, except for the occasional visitor who had their own work to do.

He looked up at the hole in the roof, noticing the sun shining through brightly._ It's a good day out.._ "Hmm... Waalk?" he thought about it for a moment before finally nodding.

Decided, he went to the door and opened it, ready for the longest walk of his long life. "Whoa!" he said as the door to his truck revealed a blue-colored EVE probe on the other side.

Her eyes were wide for a moment before forming upward crescents, "Hello, WALL-E!"

WALL-E moved down the ramp to meet with the probe, "Ah..qua?" he tilted his head to the side.

Aqua nodded happily, "Good see you." she looked behind him at the interior of the truck and pointed, "Clean?"

"Huh?" WALL-E turned around to view what she was pointing at, "Oh.." ge turned back toward her and nodded.

"Looks nice," Aqua commented, lowering her arm, "EVE said need company.." she pointed at him, "I go work.. Want come?"

WALL-E looked at her for a moment before jumping up and down excitedly, "Yes!"

Aqua giggled, "Okay, let's go!"

* * *

EVE sped on to the west as the sun rose high in the sky, signaling it was around noon. It had been about three hours since she had left the Axiom, and two of those had been spent goofing off.

She opened the map file up and study it for a moment. At her current location, she would arrive on the west coast of the continent by 5:30 p.m. if she maintained her current velocity, give or take a few minutes. _Good.._ She thought as she minimized the file out of her view. _Still have plenty of time._

She sighed out of boredom as she continued her flight. _What a long trip.. Why couldn't I have taken one of the ARVs? And why do I have to fly all the way there? I'm sure the Axiom would have had the parts needed for my next upgrade... And he could have contacted someone at the Rivalry to send him his research notes.._ She wondered, clueless as to what Dilarious's motives were. She shook her head softly, _Oh well.. Best not to get on his bad side, he's not very friendly.. Questioning him could change his mind on implementing the rest of the upgrades.. Then I wouldn't be able to help everyone like I would like to.._

EVE looked down and noticed a large white puffy object beneath her. She blinked and realized what it was, _A cloud? Why is it so low?_ She looked around and noticed no other clouds, _Wait.. Why am I so high?_ She shrugged and flew down through the cloud, bursting through the bottom and leaving a trail of white. _Now I can view the land!.. If there was anything to view..._

The flat landscape stretched on for miles upon miles with nothing of interest in sight. All brown and no green. No plant-life at all, just endless wasteland. It was a boring and sad sight. How could the humans of seven-hundred years ago neglect the world like this? What would drive them to destroy what they had like this? EVE shook her head at the thoughts. Thinking about it didn't make everything a lush green again, that's gone and would be for a long time. _I'll bring it back... _She decided, _I'll bring the Earth of the past back.. The Earth I saw in the videos.._

EVE tilted her body a little to get a look at the sun. It was in a falling state now, signaling it was about 1:00 p.m. now. She sighed and righted herself back into her original position. _Is there nothing to at least see out here?_

She scanned the area amid her flight, "Huh?" Far below her on the ground was a group of structures. Curiously, she descended to investigate the welcomed addition to the plain scenery.

The town was small and mostly in ruin, worn down and destroyed from time and weathering. EVE landed on the ground and hovered around to survey the town. To her right was a ruined building. She moved over to it and scanned the debris for any signs as to what the building could have been in its past-life.

She saw something with writing on it jutting out of the rubble. She removed a piece of the rubble with her hands and attempted to dislodge the object. A loud crack sounded and she quickly dodged as a piece of the rubble collapsed down on her previous position. She sighed and armed her right arm with the tractor-beam. _Okay.. If you want to play like that.. I'll just bring a new toy to the game._ She fired and a field of blue shot out and wrapped itself around the cluster of rubble surrounding the object of interest.

With ease, EVE lifted the rubble up and dropped it in the middle of the street. The old concrete and metal of the broken building landed and scattered in every direction, causing EVE to fly up a little to avoid being hit. When the debris settled in place, she flew down and found the object she had just fought the building for, she picked it up. It read "Sam's Bakery."

"Sam..?" She shrugged and dropped the sign back on the ground and turned to explore more buildings.

She continued hovering through the streets of the abandoned town of disrepair until a flash glinted from another destroyed building. She stopped her movement and looked over to the building, noticing a faint shine coming from under the rubble. Intrigued, she moved toward the building to investigate.

She looked into a little hole of the rubble and couldn't see the source of the light. She surveyed the rubble, _Okay, this seems to be a little more balanced.._

EVE lifted a large piece of rubble with her hands and moved it to the side. She looked back in the hole, noticing no difference. She sighed and continued removing the rubble until she finally unveiled the source of the light.

"..Mirror?" she lifted up a large shard of a broken mirror. "Hmm.." She looked around at the rubble for anything else of interest and noticed a buried pole of red and white. She looked back into the mirror again, staring at her reflection with curiosity.

A loud roaring caught EVE's attention and she lowered the mirror to look around. _That sound... isn't good._ She looked back into the mirror and her eyes went wide in fear. A giant wall of brown was behind her and fast approaching, "Uh oh..." She turned around and saw the fast-approaching dust storm roaring at her as it sped forward.

In panic, EVE looked around for a place to hide. "There!" she exclaimed as she spotted a standing two-story building. What luck to have a still-standing building here when it's needed most! _But.. how is it still standing?_ She shook her head quickly, _Doesn't matter, just go! _She yelled at herself as she headed for the entrance of the building.

* * *

The shattered rock crunched beneath WALL-E's treads as he followed Aqua to her workplace. He fidgeted with his hands and looked forward at Aqua. He had only met Aqua a month ago, and he hadn't had much time to speak with her since she was always busy with work.

WALL-E cleared his "throat" Aqua turned to look at him, "Hmm?"

"Wheerre work?" he asked.

"Name," Aqua said, pointing to herself.

"Huh?" WALL-E asked, confused.

Aqua giggled slightly, "All EVE probes help work," she explained, "Amy give us names. Match our work or appearance." She waited, seeing that WALL-E was listening and continued, "Lucky," she pointed to herself, "I blue.. Work with water.. She name me 'Aqua.'"

"Ooh," WALL-E said, "Shoould knoown.."

Aqua giggled again, "It okay. Other probes not have names to match work," she continued, "Rose is red, and is named after plant. Where you think she work?" she asked.

WALL-E thought for a second, "Uhh... plant?"

Aqua shook her head softly, "She help with construction and demolition."

WALL-E tilted his head to the side, "Whoo worrk.. plant?"

"Emerald.. Or Emmy," she answered, "Amy thought to name Emmy 'Nature,' but like nickname 'Emmy.'"

"Em...mee?" WALL-E struggled slightly.

Aqua giggled in response, "Yes."

"Thaaat all Evah's?"

Aqua shook her head again, "No, one more. Other one works at night. She always watch," Aqua said, "Amy name her 'Midnight.' She only out night time."

"Oh," he said.

A few minutes past. The old, abandoned buildings became scarce as they traveled farther out, away from the city. WALL-E kept to himself, not knowing how to continue their previous conversation. He looked down at the ground and watched as little bits of rock and rubble vanished underneath his body as he moved. He looked ahead and noticed a slightly-larger rock coming up. He prepared himself for its arrival and kicked it slightly, causing it to bounce and roll under Aqua.

She looked down at the rock as it rolled out from under her moving form and glanced back at WALL-E, who was whistling and looking up toward the sky, tilting his head slightly as if something above had intrigued him. Aqua giggled in response, "Bored?"

WALL-E looked back down at Aqua for a moment before allowing his gaze to hit the ground, "Yess.."

Aqua sighed slightly, "Sorry.. Should carry you.. Is long walk," she moved toward WALL-E and moved behind him, picking him up by his sides, "This okay?"

WALL-E nodded, "Evah carrry liike this."

Aqua nodded slightly and lifted off toward her workplace with him in her arms.

WALL-E compacted himself slightly in a defensive manner, hoping to not be dropped. He looked down at the terrain as it quickly zipped past them. All buildings were gone from view now, just the dusty road below gave any indication of past human presence. He looked up ahead of them, "Whoa," he said in surprise at what he saw.

The earth had been scarred by a giant canal extending far into the distance, toward the ocean. It snaked along the landscape unevenly, stopping at a point by a large, lifeless hill. A set of makeshift structures scattered all along the sides of canal.

Aqua lowered and landed at a large tent-like structure, crafted from old car parts and metal beams of various lengths and thickness. The structure was roofed by a large, tattered cloth of many stitched blankets. The interior's walls were lined with shelves filled with many different spare robotic parts. The center of the tent was furnished with a table, an old map of the area sitting on top of it. Beside the table was a human male, thinner than most human adults, and more muscular.

The man looked outside and noticed the arriving robots and rose out of his chair, "Aqua! Where have you been? You were supposed to be here half an hour ago.."

Aqua lowered WALL-E down to the ground and moved over to the man, "Sorry! I watch someone for sister," she pointed to WALL-E.

The man sighed heavily at the sight, "Look, I, as the foreman of this construction, have a hefty amount of work that needs to be done here by the end of this week. Do you hear me? This week! It's Thursday now, that leaves us three days to have this phase of the project done," he stopped to take a breath, "I can't have you, our most valuable worker, off prancing about with some other robot," he looked past Aqua and saw WALL-E again, "Hmm.. Wait, I know you? You're WALL-E, right?"

WALL-E slowly approached nervously, "Yess.."

"Ah, well. You've done some impressive work with those giant towers of trash.. The ones we humans have to clean up."

"Sir.." Aqua said loudly, trying to get his attention off of WALL-E.

The foreman sighed, "I'm sorry, I've just got so much work that needs to be done in such a short time.. Captain McCrea wants it all done soon, and he's kinda my boss," he sat back in his chair and eyed the map for a moment, "Aqua, I want you to put WALL-E somewhere where he won't get in the way of our work. Or you can find something for him to do to help us, which would be more preferable. Find some work to do in the meantime until we're ready for you up by the ocean wall."

Aqua nodded and turned, tilting her head slightly toward the exit, indicating WALL-E to follow her. He nodded and complied. Aqua led them to the edge of the canal and stopped to examine it. WALL-E moved up beside her and looked on in awe at what he saw. It was just as impressive up close as it was from afar.

"Big, isn't it?" Aqua asked from beside WALL-E.

WALL-E nodded, "Never kneeew thiss.."

"Work for two weeks," she said, "It thirty feet across.. ten feet deep."

WALL-E tilted his head slightly in question, "Whyy sooo big?"

Aqua shrugged slightly, "Lot of people. Dig canal to water treatment facility near Axiom.. Give clean water for humans."

WALL-E blinked his optics, "Waterr treattment?"

Aqua nodded, "Ocean has salt water. Not good for humans. Clean at facility for them," she paused for a moment and looked down toward town, "It not built yet.. But we work with Rose and others to build soon."

"Ooh," WALL-E said in understanding and went back to looking at the unfinished canal. He continued looking up and down the canal in awe until he felt a light tug on his arm. He looked up and saw Aqua.

"I have work. Take you inside," she said.

WALL-E shook his head and compacted himself into box-form.

Aqua moved her arm slightly in surprise, "Huh?"

WALL-E lifted his head out of his body, "I heeelp."

Aqua sighed softly and smiled, "Okay, come then."

She led WALL-E down the canal a little ways and stopped at an uneven section of the canal wall. She studied it for a moment, comparing it to the other sections of the wall before nodding. "Okay! Work here," she said and turned to WALL-E, "We even wall now for cement later."

"Seement?" he questioned, "Whyy?"

"We don't put it in, canal will erode from water, make cleaning harder later."

"Ooh," WALL-E responded, "Okaay, wheree work?"

Aqua pointed to the edge of the wall, "Right here, let's even wall."

WALL-E moved toward the wall and formed his hands into shovels and began to dig into the wall carefully. Aqua followed his example and began to dig into the wall as well. After awhile, she looked to see how much WALL-E had finished, noticing how much he had done compared to her. "Wow, you do good job!"

WALL-E looked at her excitedly, "Thaanks!"

Aqua giggled at his excitement, "Better than me! Should help more often!" she smiled.

WALL-E nodded, happy to be useful. He looked past Aqua and saw the foreman from earlier walking in their direction. He looked back down at his work and fully concentrated on his current job, hoping he could impress the foreman as he had impressed Aqua. He saw feet stop next to him out of the corner of his optics and he slowly looked up and saw the foreman looking down at him. He stood there for a moment looking at him before looking away, "Aqua, we're ready for you up by the ocean wall."

Aqua got up and brushed some of the dirt off her hands, "What job?"

"We need to widen the canal walls a bit more for the cement, you will blast away the sides enough for our other bots to do the fine work, similar to what WALL-E is doing right now," he looked down at WALL-E again.

WALL-E stopped looking at the foreman and doubled his efforts at the side of the wall, chipping away more dirt with his shovel-hands.

Aqua nodded, "Okay, be there soon!"

"You have ten minutes, don't make us wait more than you already have."

Aqua slowly nodded again, "Okay..."

WALL-E stopped working when the foreman began walking back up to the tent he was in earlier. Aqua looked at him, "I not ask you to keep working... if you not want to. But choice yours."

WALL-E held up his shovel-hands for Aqua to see, "I wooork!"

Aqua nodded happily, "Okay! Thank you.. Best not be late.. I be back soon," she said and turned to leave and flew off toward the ocean.

WALL-E watched as she became a tiny spec in the distance before finally disappearing. WALL-E sighed happily, "Time forr.. worrk!"

* * *

EVE closed the door behind her, shutting out the violent, dusty winds. She looked around in amazement. The entry hall was long and thin with a staircase leading up at the long end of it. Two doors stood on the left side with one on the right. Paintings decorated the walls in-between each of the doors, each crooked and covered in dust. The floor was carpeted with patches worn away, revealing the wooden planks below.

EVE slowly moved down the hall, eyeing each of the paintings on the wall. She stopped in front of one that was hanging lopsided. She gently grabbed it off of its place on the wall and brushed away the dust, revealing the outline of what looked to be a mountain, shadowed by the darkness of the hall.

She looked away from the picture for a source of light and spotted an old, rusted wall lamp hanging to the right. She searched the lamp for a switch. Finding one, she turned it and the light flickered to life. _Power? That's surprising.. More surprising than the fact this place is still standing..._

She looked back at the picture for a better look. The mountains were lush and green, covered in a forest of trees. The mountains were low below the puffy clouds, colored various shades of orange and red by the setting sun in the background. The picture as a whole was beautiful, revealing the Earth in all its former glory.

EVE sighed and placed the picture back on the wall and made sure it was straight, contrary to its previous position. _Soon.. _She thought.

She continued down the hall and noticed the first door on her left was crooked and hanging slightly off its hinges. With a shrug, she reached for the knob on the door to open it and jumped out of the way when it crashed down in the hall, hitting the wall on the other end.

EVE looked down at the door with slightly-wide eyes. _Doesn't seem like it will be standing for much longer..._ She moved the door and gently positioned it flat on the floor and moved into the room.

The room was a fair size with a decent-sized, dusty table in the middle with six cushioned dining chairs around it, some having fallen on their sides and one missing a leg. Against the wall was a cabinet with plates and bowls hiding behind a glass window, each having a design of red and pink flowers and vines tied together going around the rim of each. Scattered across the base of the cabinet were dishes of a similar design, shattered by the fall they had taken off the cabinet. Other than the displayed chinaware in the cabinet, nothing else was of interest to EVE. She shrugged and headed for an opening on the far end of the right wall.

The opening led to the kitchen, a small room lined with countertops and hanging cabinets. Countertops sat against the left wall with a sink of rusted steel placed into it underneath a cracked window. Along the far end of the kitchen was a stove, placed at the end of the countertops. Its oven door was half open, allowing dust to blanket the entirety of the interior. A refrigerator stood alone against the right wall, beside an opening leading back into the hallway. Old photos of children and animals covered the fridge, held in place by tiny magnets.

EVE started her search of the room by heading to the window. She looked outside and was greeted by the dust slamming into the window, _Still hasn't let up, I see.. No matter! There's plenty to explore in here._ She looked down and pulled the sink lever up. She was greeted by a a small rumbling sound and a thick, brownish liquid poured out of the faucet. EVE lowered the lever quickly and backed away to dodge the splashing goop in the sink. A moment later she moved back to the sink to examine the remains in the sink. _Is that mud? Possibly from a busted water pipe somewhere..._

EVE turned around and examined the front of the fridge. She grabbed one of the old, brittle photos and carefully examined it. It was a picture of two children, a boy and a girl, smiling. It looked to be at a gathering; there were people in the background chatting to one another. They seemed to be having a good time with, possibly, their family. EVE gently tried to replace the photo on the fridge and, to her horror, watched it crumble from its place and scatter on the floor. "No..." _Their happiness faded like the rest of this world did.. _She thought as she stared at the pile from the old picture on the ground. She shook her head softly in disgust of the condition of everything now. "There anything left not damaged?"

She sighed and reentered the hallway that she had been in ten minutes before. She looked up and down the hall. She was now much closer to the stairs than she had been previously. She had also passed a door on the other side of the hall. She approached it cautiously and twisted the door knob, expecting it to fall like the last one did. It opened cleanly and swung open into the room. She went inside.

The first thing that EVE noticed was the giant pile of rubble in the middle of the room, burying a sofa and coffee table underneath it. Above the pile was a giant, gaping hole with a bed hanging over the edge, dangerously close to falling. A blanket hung off the bed and dangled through the hole. She pulled lightly on the blanket, and it fell down on top of her. She pulled the blanket off and looked at it a moment. It was a faded blue in color with yellow stars of varying sizes strewn across the fabric.

EVE dropped the blanket and made her way around the pile of debris in the middle of the room, reaching a television positioned atop a small bookcase. The books were neatly positioned along the two rows of shelves. She examined the television and found the power button. Curiously, she pressed it; the television displayed a screen of static. She pressed another button. A spark sounded loudly and the screen flashed very brightly for a second before going black.

EVE blinked at what had happened and she pressed the power button again, and then again before realizing the device had just been fried. She sighed and looked around again. Noting nothing of extraorinary interest, she left the room.

A crash sounded from upstairs followed by a loud whistling sound. EVE made her way upstairs to investigate.

The second floor looked nearly identical to the first, only difference being that there was a window in place of where the entrance would've been, and there were two doors on both sides of the hall, instead of the original setup of two on one side and one on the other. There was a lack of paintings on the walls and an absence of carpeting on the floor.

Directly on EVE's left was an open door. She peaked inside and noticed it was a bathroom. Uninterested, EVE looked to her right at a closed door. She opened it and found a room of pink and white. The walls were painted pink with white trimming along the top and bottom of them. The floor was uncarpeted except for a tiny, dust-stained, white carpet beside the bed. _I bet this was where that little girl in the picture slept... _She left the room out of respect.

She turned to head further down the hall. She turned to head into the open door of the left room, and noticed the difference between this room and the last. Where the last room was pink, this room had multiple shades of blue on the walls in a vertical line pattern with a similar white trim along the top and bottom of the walls. The other major difference was the absence of half the floor. The bed hung in the hole, on the brink of falling through to the living room below. EVE shrugged and left the room.

The door to the final room was closed. EVE opened the door to find another bedroom. This one was slightly larger than the other two, containing a double bed across the left wall. The walls were a plain white in color and a large, light-gray carpet was situated underneath the bed.

EVE saw a small hole in a window across the room and moved toward it. _This must be what the noise I heard was... But there's no more whistling?_ She looked outside the window and smiled in delightment that the dust storm had finally passed. _Good! I can finally get going.._ She turned to head back downstairs. Once below, she stopped at the picture of the mountain and looked at it for a moment. _It's such a nice image.. It would be nice to take with me.. But it's too big.. Unless... _She shrugged and took a recording of the image, saving it to her memory for viewing later.

She reached over and turned off the flickering light and left the house. _I want to make it to the coast before nightfall.._ She took note of the time. 3:37 p.m. _Oh no.. I'm definately not going to make it by staying here!_ She took off in a rush in an almost-desperate attempt to beat the setting sun to her destination.

* * *

The pair of shoveled hands struck through the loose, dusty ground into the hard-packed earth below with determination. The loose patches of dirt fell from their resting place and rolled into a growing pile at the bottom of the canal. Another strike from above sounded and another chunk of earth fell toward the pile.

WALL-E scanned the sides of the canal at his handiwork, applauding happily at his progress. The walls of the canal, once jagged and rough, were now as smooth as the hull of the Axiom. He looked along the wall, away from the main tent, for more edges that needed smoothing. Spotting none, he began his descent into the canal to start transporting the loose dirt back to the top.

He was careful to not move too fast so he didn't topple over himself. The canal, from one side to the other, was bowl-shaped, nearly-flat at the bottom with a slight increase of elevation as it worked its way to one side, ending with a steep climb out.

At the bottom, he opened the door of his trash-compactor and began scooping in arm-fulls of dirt. Once filled, he made his way up the steep slope to the top, making a mental note of a tiny rock protruding out of the side of the wall about half-way up.

At the top, he made his way to a flat spot a few feet away from the side of the canal and emptied the dirt load he carried with him. "Theere! Few morre.." he turned and made his way to the edge of the canal once again.

He stopped at the sound of two robots squabbling about something near the main tent. He looked over toward them and tilted his head in confusion.

A tiny robot yelled out angrily at his companion. He was about two-feet tall and had two pairs of wheels to move about on. His main body was was a box-shape with a gap in the back for storage. _Nothing much could be stored in a space that small.. _WALL-E thought. The robots small arms were placed at the front sides of his body and were topped with shovel-like hands, much like WALL-E's.

He then glanced toward the larger robot. It was a much taller robot, built with strength in mind. He figured it might've been used for construction or the movement of larger or heavier objects. It looked very similar to the design of a fit human male, though much more mechanical-looking, with loose wires seen behind the slightly loose, boxy frame of the body. It seemed like a robot built quickly with a disregard to durability. Sure it could lift heavy objects and easily move them; but if one caught-hold of one of those loose wires, it could end badly for both the robot and the object in question.

The arguement continued on in what WALL-E assumed to be a language known to the Axiom bots only, and turned to descend the slope of the canal once again to finish his job. The fight was none of his business; it would be best for him to just continue his work and not become a part of it.

At the bottom, he grabbed up another chamber-full of dirt and began to ascend the smooth slope again. About half-way up, he stopped to look at the protruding rock again and debated whether or not to just take care of it that instant or not. He was torn from his thoughts at the sound of a loud crashing of metal and looked up and around. At the bottom of the canal lay the tiny robot he saw only minutes before. "Whoa!" he exclaimed and rushed to the tiny bots aid.

The tiny bucket-bot lay with a missing wheel and a bent, unuseable arm. He pulled himself along the ground at a snail's pace and groaned aloud at the effort. WALL-E stopped beside the battered bot, "Yoou okaay?"

The tiny bot looked at him angrily, "Do I look okay?" He shook his useable arm at him at if to hit him.

WALL-E dodged, "Heeey!"

"All of you are the same!" he said furiously. "All of you never help poor little robots when they need it!"

"I heelp," WALL-E offered. "Naame?"

The bot paused a moment, studying WALL-E for a moment. "Buck," he said finally, "That's all they call me. No fancy name that means something. Just a lazy name like Buck..."

"Buuck nott baad.. naame!" he said, reassuringly.

Buck shrugged lightly, "Buck the bucket-bot, that's me!" he said sarcastically. "What's your name?"

"WALL-Eee," he said, reaching his hand out to Buck.

Buck's little eyes widened at the name, "You're... WALL-E?" he blinked. "Oh wow.. I should've known! Sorry for my... behavior.. Just in a bad mood.. You know... Since my arm is broken and I'm missing a wheel and am STRANDED in this giant elongated death-trap of a hole!"

WALL-E sighed slightly, pulling his hand back, "Heere.. I heelp," he grabbed Buck by the side of his body and began to pull him toward the nearest side.

Buck stabbed his good arm into the dirt to anchor him in place, "Whoa whoa whoa! Where do you think you're taking me?" he questioned.

WALL-E stopped and blinked at Buck, "Oout of hooole?" he asked, confused.

Buck nodded in agreement, "That's right! BUT.." his eyes narrowed, ".. not that way!"

WALL-E looked up the slope that they were at the base of, "Buut.. it cloosser.."

Buck tugged his body out of WALL-E's grip, "I fell and was HORRIBLY damaged by making a trip I had to make ALONE!" he yelled out angrily, "I will make it to the other side to fulfill my duties with OR without you!" he finished and began dragging his body toward the other side.

WALL-E smacked the side of his optics lightly with his hand in frustration, "Okaay... I heelp.." he said, moving over to Buck to pull him along to the far side of the canal.

Buck, delighted, yelled out, "Full speed ahead!"

WALL-E shook his head slightly and sighed.

* * *

Aqua examined the walls of the canal, noticing the obvious decrease in width from one side to the other at the walled-off mouth. The ocean raged at the wall, wanting access to what should rightfully be its own.

"Alright, Aqua, you see what I need you to do?" the foreman asked the blue probe as he walked to the area of interest. He stomped the ground where he stood, "This bunch of dirt needs to go. And that," he pointed to the opposite end, "needs to go as well. Simple, right?"

Aqua nodded slowly, eyeing the barricade that blocked off the ocean, "Need more support," she pointed at the barricade, "Side walls keep ocean wall stable."

The foreman nodded in agreement, "Yes, and we're handling that, but right now there's a deadline that I mean to reach," he said looking at the ocean wall. "I want these two sides gone, the ocean wall should hold long enough for us to fortify the wall," he walked to the ocean wall to examine it. The waves beat against the wall with force, "The wall is holding just fine," he said, looking back to Aqua,. "It is five feet thick, afterall!"

Aqua sighed and shook her head slightly, _Five feet isn't a lot, even if it's made of cement..._"How long for support?"

The foreman sighed at the question, "Enough.. Listen," he moved over to Aqua, "there's no time for questions. Trust me on this, I have thought it through."

Aqua looked up at him, a slight look of worry in her eyes. She shook her head and put on a determined face, "Okay.. Work then," she flew up to, once again, examine the uneven sides that provided needed support for the ocean wall. She sighed in defeat. No matter what she did, the foreman wouldn't listen to reason. She shrugged, hoping the foreman was right and that she was just worrying about nothing. She flew down closer to one of the sides of the canal and armed her Ion Cannon to work.

"Remember," the foreman yelled out to her from across the canal, "the walls need to be even with the rest so it will make placing the cement easier in the future!"

Aqua looked back at him and nodded. She aimed her Ion Cannon down at the wall, searching for the most effective spot. Once found, she narrowed her eyes and fired. The ball of energy launched forward at full speed, impacting the wall only moments after being fired. Dirt and dust flew everywhere from the impact site and, once cleared, a scorched mark on the ground was left with molten rock bleeding out of the newly-opened wound.

Aqua examined the blast area of her first strike. It was, for the most part, a clean blast and a few more blasts like that would finish up that side for the finer trimming to begin. She aimed her cannon again and narrowed her eyes, ready to take another shot. A small cracking sound caught Aqua's attention and she lowered her arm and looked around. No one else seemed to notice it.

"Aqua! What are you doing? You can take the next shot at any time!" the foreman called out from below.

Aqua ignored him, listening to the sound intently. It grew louder.

The foreman looked up at her angrily, "We don't have all day, Aqua! If you're not going to do the job, I can get one of your sist... What's that noise?"

Aqua's eyes went wide as she realized what the sound was. She looked down at the ocean wall and her fears were confirmed; the ocean wall wore cracks on its surface. She flew down and, in a desperate attempt to prevent her fears from becoming reality, held onto the wall, attempting to push back the force of the ocean as it tried to gain more territory beyond the feeble wall. The cracks lengthened and the sounds grew louder with every passing second. Aqua was losing the battle for control of the ocean wall.

"Aqua," the foreman yelled out, "just let it go!"

Aqua looked up at him for a moment, still struggling to hold back the breaking wall. She looked back at the wall, noticing water leaking through all the cracks, creating a small puddle beneath her. She continued holding for a moment longer until she finally let go and flew up at full speed, dodging the bursting wall by inches. She sighed and flew down to meet the foreman.

The foreman watched as the water sped down the canal and sighed, "Well.. This won't look good on my report to the captain.." he muttered.

"I try.." Aqua said softly, as if she were at fault.

"Hey now, you're the one that warned of this. I should have listened," the foreman said, "We'll wall the ocean off again and drain the water off. Though the canal is long.. It will be a lot of water.. Especially since it'll be filled to the brim.."

Aqua nodded softly, "Filled..." she snapped her head up in full awareness, "Canal.. filled?" Her eyes grew wide in shock, "No... WALL-E!" She launched herself off the ground and took off down the canal toward the camp.

She looked down the length of the canal and spotted the wall of water in the distance. It had yet to reach the camp, and, if WALL-E was still where she left him, he would be farther down. She began to catch up to the lead the wall of water had taken and she looked ahead. Her eyes went wide. She saw a shape in the middle of the canal, much closer to the camp than she originally had thought. She strained her eyes to see exactly what it was, "WALL-E.." But there was another shape too, to the left of WALL-E; it was another robot. "Oh no..."

She looked down and saw she had taken a very slight lead over the water. She looked back toward the two robots in the middle of the canal, moving very slowly to her left, away from the camp. She began to panic. She calculated in her head whether she'd be able to save both or not and the answer was not to her liking. She closed her eyes for a moment, "Forgive me.." She opened her eyes into a narrowed position and set her sight on WALL-E.

She quickly closed in, taking a much more considerable lead on the water now. WALL-E was clearly visible now. He pushed the smaller robot along frantically as he eyed the towering wall of water as it sped toward them, fear showing in his optics. He looked up in surprise at her and stopped his actions. She corrected her course slightly, "WALL-E!"

He looked around quickly and then back up at her. His optics opened wider than he ever thought possible. _No.. She's coming for only me? _She closed in rapidly, with arms stretched out to grab him on the move. "Noo!" he yelled out, pulling Buck in front of him with all his strength.

Aqua's eyes went wide in realization as she grabbed Buck in WALL-E's stead. She had no time to think and flew directly toward the closest side to place Buck down. Instantly, she flew back to the Canal for WALL-E and stopped at the edge. The water had already passed, its force continuing down toward the far end of the canal's length.

She blinked in shock at what had just happened. "No.." she said in disbelief, "No!" She lowered her head at her failure, "I can't.. believe.." she shook her head softly. She raised her head again, searching the water for any signs of him and saw none. "What have I... done..?"

"Saaave Buuck!"

Aqua's head raised up in a snap at the sound of that voice. She looked around in search of the source. She looked down to her right. There was a hole, and the source's head was poking out of it, looking at her curiously. "WALL-E!" she yelled out, grabbing him up out of the hole and taking him into a hug.

"Whoa! Helllo," he said happily, "Buuck..okaay?"

Aqua put WALL-E down and nodded softly, "It hard.. had to choose.." she tried to explain.

WALL-E stopped her, "Noo, itt okaaay. Saaafe!" he pointed to himself.

"I don't know about him, but you were going to leave me!" Buck said, dragging himelf over to the two by the water.

Aqua looked over at him, surprised. "You hurt.."

"Oh? I didn't notice that! Glad you are here to clarify to me that my arm is broken and I'm missing a wheel! I never would have seen that. Thank you!"

Aqua sighed, "At least you still same.."

Buck turned to WALL-E, "I know I gave you a hard time in there, but I didn't think the hype around you was justified. I see, now, why everyone has spoken about you as a hero. I would've been left in there to short-circuit and fail if it wasn't for you.." he looked over angrily at Aqua, "So... Thanks."

WALL-E nodded, "Glaad heelp.."

"It getting late.. Let's go, WALL-E," she motioned for WALL-E to allow her to pick him up, "Talk later, Buck." she added, looking at Buck.

"Yeah yeah.. Maybe you could actually help me, for once, and get me a replacement arm and wheel.. Oh, and maybe a good word for me with the boss, since I nearly DIED out there.. Some upgrades would be great! And maybe... Hey, where're you going? I'm not done!"

Aqua lifted off with WALL-E in her grip, "Talk later!" she turned and flew off toward the Axiom.

A few moments passed and Aqua eyed the setting sun. She sighed, "Today.. eventful.."

WALL-E turned his head and nodded at her, "Fuun.. thooough."

Aqua shook her head and smiled slightly, "How EVE handle you... I not know."

WALL-E just continued to look at her in confusion as she giggled at his reaction.

* * *

EVE's vision dimmed to fifty percent brightness as she continued her flight. She wasn't sure if it was from the fact that the sky was darkening or that her energy levels were running dangerously low. She blamed the energy levels since the sun was shining brightly straight ahead of her on the horizon, half consumed by the distant ocean. _Ocean!_

The ocean was a sea of flames against the setting sun. The waves were violently attacking the shore, likely from a distant storm. Though the sea portrayed a violence of destructive force, EVE found beauty in it.

She sighed in relief as she set down on a beach of sand and rock. The first half of her trip to the Rivalry was finally behind her. The trip had been eventful; more so than she had expected it to be. Though she had started the day by goofing off and wasting time, not helped by the dust storm that had anchored her into the old abandoned house, her speed made up for the time lost and got her to her destination. _West coast.. Getting here was the easy part.. Now I have a whole ocean ahead of me.._ She thought to herself. The Axiom felt so far away.

She checked the time, _7:02 p.m._ It had been a long day, and her energy supplies wouldn't last much longer if she kept evading the inevitable rest that she needed. She took a final look at the horizon. The sun had disappeared beneath the ocean, but it's presence still acknowledged by the burning sky on the horizon. The scene reminded EVE of a dream she had had a little more than a week before, though that dream hadn't offered the peace that the sunset did.

She shook her head and looked away and started searching for a place to rest. She looked up and down the shore and found a cliff with an overhang that would protect her from any rain that may come from that distant storm. Once she determined that the spot was safe from the tide, she settled into her dormant form. She took one last look around and sighed. She would spend this night alone. "WALL-E..."

The Axiom truly was far away.

* * *

The stars shone brightly in the cloudless night sky. The moon revealed the tiny particles of space junk and discarded wastes of the ancient BnL-controlled Earth. So much was revealed from the debris in the atmosphere. It told the history of the first flight into space, the first landing on the moon, of how satellites were put up for technology, how the satellites were abused and discarded, of how the world was abused and, ultimately, discarded. Yes, the debris that revolved around the earth told the past quite well. But it also told of other things; it told the future.

Dilarious smiled and closed the window he had been staring out of. Yes, the future had been told, to him at least. But soon it would be told to the rest of the world as well. He would make sure of it.

He walked across the floor of his front office to a wall with many hanging monitors on it. Each one was fairly large at about twenty-three inches in size. There were twelve monitors in total, but only a few were active. One screen displayed multiple sets of numbers placed on a spreadsheet. Another one displayed the solar system, with lines drawn across it as if predicting their future paths. The planets rotated around the sun by a set amount before resetting their positions and starting again, playing in an endless loop. A third screen displayed static. "Again with the connection problems?" he said out loud in annoyance, "Worthless satellites.."

He brought up a program on a forth monitor and typed in a few numbers, searching for a frequency to rid of the static. He thought for a moment before typing in a frequency. The static on the third monitor disappeared, revealing a camera-feed from a satellite in orbit. "The problem," Dilarious explained aloud to himself, "is that the satellite is automatically switching between multiple frequencies.. A programming bug, perhaps? Or maybe it's malfunctioning hardware to blame... That wouldn't be surprising, considering the age of the satellite in question.. I'm surprised anything up there still functions."

He opened up a menu and entered a new set of numbers, "There, that should keep it locked to this frequency. Now.." he stared at the spreadsheet, "what am I missing here? With the force from the boosters, the satellite can move at speeds of five miles per second, seven if it's pushed to its max potential.. With the average speed of space debris in low orbit, and the angle at which the earth will be one week from now..." the scientist put in a few more numbers, stopping from time to time to work out an equation in his head, then he smiled excitedly, "The problem is with the angle at which the satellite travels. If I were to adjust the angle by seventeen-degrees to the right and four-degrees lower..." he punched in a few more numbers, "... then everything will line up pefectly! That only leaves the time of the initial thrust's activation.." he glanced back at the display from the satellite and studied it for a few moments before nodding to himself. "If today is the 20th of September... Then," he punched in another small line of numbers, "activation should begin at approximately 10:27 p.m. on September 24th."

He smiled at his work and nodded again. "The only thing to do now is to wait. Patience will be rewarded with success." He saved all of his work and closed out of the programs and yawned, "Time for this old man to get some rest.. There's still much to be done tomorrow."

He walked toward a door on the far end of the room and stopped. He looked back at the computer terminal that he was at moments before and smiled to himself triumphantly, "Perfection once again," he said as he went through the door and closed it behind him.


End file.
